Stellar Shot of the Week: August 6, 2021
"Messier 20" - by Gary Brown
Congratulations to this week's Stellar Shot selection, which goes to the first shot we've received from the recent Stellarvue Deep Sky Star Party. This event is held annually in Likely, CA, which happens to have some of the darkest skies and best seeing you can find in California. There are limited tickets every year and the event is only open to Stellarvue owners, so even though we've sold out for 2022 (see you there, Gary!) we invite anyone interested in attending to please reach out with questions. Getting back to Gary's fantastic image here, amazingly this is actually a cropped version from a larger version that included both this nebula and its larger neighbor, the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8). Also impressive is that this wonderfully-detailed shot was taken with the relatively-small SVX070T. Using scopes as sharp and as accurate as our SVX-series refractor means that you can still bring out this kind of detail with smaller apertures, and Gary has done a wonderful job showcasing the bold blue colors in the Trifid nebula. From dark skies to great processing, its hard to imagine much better results than this! The final product we see here is actually a blend of both broadband and narrowband data, with the latter having come from Optolong's dual-band L-eNhance filter and the broadband having been an unfiltered ASI2600MC-Pro.
The rest of Gary's work can be seen on his website, https://urbanskiesobservatory.com/index.html. Please also make sure to submit your own images to us by email too (mail@stellarvue.com) or by tagging them on social media with #stellarvue and #stellarshot.
The technical details of this shot are as follows:
- Telescope: Stellarvue SVX70T
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
- Mount: iOptron CEM70
- Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini on 60mm Guide Scope
- Focal Reducer/Flattener: Stellarvue 0.8x
- Auto Focuser: ZWO EAF
- Broadband Sub-Frames: 25 x 300s OSC Unfiltered 8-Jul-21 Likely, CA
- Narrowband Sub-Frames: 25 x 300s OSC L-Enhance 9-Jul-21 Likely, CA
- Total Integration: 4.17 Hours
- Processed in PixInsight with Flat and Dark Frame Calibration
