The Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae in the Constellation Sagittarius 12th May 2021

These remarkable nebulae are close together both within a field of view of 2 degrees and in distance from Earth (4300 light years for the Lagoon Nebula bottom right and 5200 light years for the Trifid Nebula, top left.  Both are bright enough to be directly observed through the eyepiece but long exposure astrophotography and the accompanying post processing techniques make them stand out especially with the varied colour of the smaller Trifid Nebula.    

 

The image is made up of 14 x 2 minute exposures taken with a  modified (for astrophotography) Canon 450D Camera and Skywatcher  ED80(mm) Refractor Telescope.  Image processing with Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosty, Photoshop CC and Astropanel.

IC 2948 The Running Chicken in Hubble Pallette Colours with further processing in Astro Pixel Processor

Second Process with  preprocessing and stacking  in Asto Pixel Processor and star reduction in Photoshop.

Second Process with  preprocessing and stacking  in Asto Pixel Processor and star removal in Photoshop.

First process with stacking in Nebulosity and combination in Photoshop

Running Chicken. T8 at Coonabarabran.  Takahashi FSQ ED 106mm Refractor and FLI  Monochrome Camera plus filters for Hubble Colour Pallette(HA Hydrogen Alpha, OIII Oxygen 3 and SIII Sulphur 3)