Messier 20 (NGC 6514)
by Vern on Jun.30, 2006, under Astronomy, Deep sky, Diffuse Nebula
Messier 20 (NGC 6514), known as Trifid Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius is favorite place for many of us to visit on summer evenings. It is a fun object to photograph because the nice contrast between the blue reflection nebula and the red emission nebula. I created some wallpaper sized versions 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1024×768, and 800×600.
Image taken early this morning around 2am from Louisville, CO with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Celestron F6.2 focal reducer, and Canon 300D Rebel camera. ImagePlus used to dark subtract, flat field and bias correct, align, stack, brightness and color enhance 10 images. Two minute exposures used at ASA 400. The sky was mostly clear, transparency varied from fair to good. Temperature was 64 to 62°F, no wind, turbulence was around 6/10.
June 30th, 2006 on 7:58 pm
After dinner this evening, I noticed that images had an overall greenish tint (or is it just something I ate?). I toned it down just a bit, and replaced all images.