Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Contains:  7 Sgr  ·  9 Sgr  ·  B296  ·  B88  ·  B89  ·  HD164265  ·  HD164266  ·  HD164385  ·  HD164386  ·  HD164403  ·  HD164453  ·  HD164515  ·  HD164535  ·  HD164536  ·  HD164537  ·  HD164585  ·  HD164602  ·  HD164793  ·  HD164834  ·  HD164865  ·  HD164906  ·  HD164907  ·  HD164933  ·  HD164947  ·  HD165015  ·  HD165016  ·  HD165052  ·  HD165132  ·  HD165133  ·  HD165246  ·  And 78 more.
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M8 (Lagoon Nebula), Kirby Collins
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M8 (Lagoon Nebula)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M8 (Lagoon Nebula), Kirby Collins
Powered byPixInsight

M8 (Lagoon Nebula)

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Description

At magnitude 6, the Lagoon Nebula ( M8 ) in Sagittarius is visible to the naked eye as a faint smoky patch under dark skies.  Messier described "a large number of small stars," but Herschel with his great reflector saw a "nebulosity of the milky kind," with "some [pretty bright] stars in it."  It takes an imaging system and long exposures to reveal the wealth of detail in the molecular clouds among the cluster of stars at its heart.

About 5000 light years from Earth, M8 is a prime example of the star forming regions to be found towards the center of our galaxy.  It's clouds of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur are being ionized and sculpted by the intense radiation from newly born stars.

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M8 (Lagoon Nebula), Kirby Collins