The Lagoon Nebula - M8

 Astrophotography details:

Film Hypered Agfachrome RSX 100
Telescope/camera Meade LX-200 10"
F-ratio F/10 (Prime focus)
Exposure time 2.5 hours
AutoGuider Meade Pictor 201-XT  Gusty winds that night. About four of the brighter stars have a couple of tiny trails at about 11 0'clock that I presume is a result of the wind gusts blowing the telescope about a bit. Autoguider maintained lock like a champ throughout however.  M8 is a relatively easy object. There was absolutely no light pollution at the chosen site. Was happy to see some of the dark globules within the nebula.
Autoguider exposure time 1 second 
guide star SAO186247, Mag 7.5
Date of Photo 2130 Hours local, 30 June 97
Location Dark site within the White Mountains at the 9200 foot elevation level.
Scanner HP PHOTOSMART SCANNER
Additional image processing  Rescanned and reprocessed on 24 July 99.  Used software I wrote to bring dim details up out of the noise.  It uses an inverse exponential function.  Image below is what I had posted earlier.  Both images are from the same original slide.  I had always been disappointed that the slide had more detail than I was able to coerce out of the image processing systems.  Most of what I see in the slide with a slide viewer is now visible in the image above.
Posted  July 97