Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Contains:  Hourglass nebula  ·  IC 1274  ·  IC 1275  ·  IC 4685  ·  Lagoon nebula  ·  M 20  ·  M 8  ·  NGC 6514  ·  NGC 6523  ·  NGC 6526  ·  NGC 6530  ·  NGC 6544  ·  NGC 6546  ·  NGC 6559  ·  The star 11Sgr  ·  The star 4Sgr  ·  The star 7Sgr  ·  The star 9Sgr  ·  Trifid nebula
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M8 + M20, greenbbs
M8 + M20
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M8 + M20

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M8 + M20, greenbbs
M8 + M20
Powered byPixInsight

M8 + M20

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Description

The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is the larger of the 2. It's only one of 2 nebula in the Northern Hemisphere visible to the unaided eye (the other being the Orion Nebula). It's about 4000-6000 light years from Earth. It's found within the constellation of Saggitarius (on the bottom side of the core of the Milky Way when seen from our area). The nebula gets its color from hydrogen ions which glow red. This area of the sky is a giant stellar nursery, and is active in star formation!

The Trifid Nebula (M20) is the smaller of the two (near the top). It gets it's name because if you look closely at it, it appears to be broken into 3 lobes. It lives about 5000 light years away, and is also a stellar nursery.

All the other stars you see are part of the dense core of the Milky Way (our home), and are tightly packed. If you went far enough to the country, you'd see this as a glowing "cloud" in the night sky.

Nerdy Tech Details:

Sony A99

ISO 800

30 seconds x 40 exposures (20 minutes total time)

Stellarvue SV80ST imaging scope

Tracked on a Celestron AVX mount

Put together with PixInsight

Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

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M8 + M20, greenbbs