Here's my latest attempt at an RGB image using a monochrome camera. This image is of Messier 8, or the Lagoon Nebula. This nebula is an icon of the summer southern Milky Way, visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch hanging just above the spout of the Sagittarius teapot. It's a favorite photographic target, but because of its location, or rather my location at 40 degrees north, it crosses the sky at seemingly the speed of light. Combine that with short summer nights, and it turns out to be a tougher object than one would think. Not to mention that my southwestern horizon is dominated by the giant light dome of a hopelessly overlit truck stop...

Anyway...

Object: Messier 8
Date: August 6, 2010
Location: Funks Grove, Illinois (40.5N, 89.0W)
Instrument: AT106 LE (106mm f/6, triplet)
Camera: SBIG ST8300M w/ FW-5 filter wheel
Filters: Baader Ha(7nm), R,G,B
Astro-Tech Field Flattener
Guider: Orion ST80 w/SSAG
Mount: Celestron CGE
Ha - 10 X 180 seconds
RGB - 4 X 180 seconds each channel
Channels stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
HaRRGB Combine done with Photoshop CS4 using Starizona Method 2

Click the thumbnail for a larger image:

[Update: I wanted to compare the two different HaRGB Methods that Starizona has. First thing I notice is that there are many more stars in the picture below compared to the first one. I also see now that I've got some egg-shaped stars on the right side of the image. Probably due to something in the imaging train not being square]