"THE LAGOON, THE TRIFID & THE CHINESE DRAGON"
- Deepsky LRGB 750mm

The Lagoon Nebula (also called Messier 8 or NGC6523) is a structure of emission and reflection nebulae with a brightness of 6.0 mag and an angular extent The true extent of the entire nebula complex reaches about 160x60x100 light years at a presumed distance of about 5000 light years. M8 is the second brightest gas nebula visible in Central Europe and an easy-to-find binocular object. 
The nebula was discovered in 1654 by Giovanni Battista Hodierna and independently rediscovered in 1680 by John Flamsteed, who is also credited with the discovery of the open star cluster NGC 6530.
The Lagoon Nebula is located near the galactic center of the Milky Way. A large number of dust clouds and dark nebulae can be seen in this region. This is an active star-forming region. The intensified UV radiation from the surrounding stars illuminates the hydrogen in the gas cloud, and the brightest nebula region is also known as the "Hourglass Nebula". The hottest stars are named Sagittari & Herschel 36.
Other objects worth seeing in this image are the "Starfish" globular cluster (NGC6544) to the lower left and a globular cluster called "Webb's Cross" in the top center.



The Trifid Nebula (also known as Messier 20 or NGC 6514) is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. The name comes from the Latin word trifidus "three-part, three-split", as a dark dust cloud (Barnard 85) divides the nebula into three parts. It is a place of star formation (H-II region) with an apparent magnitude of +9.0 mag. The main nebula is ionized by the hot star HD 164492, which belongs to the O7 type. Hidden inside the nebula are several massive protostars that are only visible in the infrared. The distance of the Trifid Nebula from Earth is about 5200 light years.



The Chinese Dragon Nebula, as it is also known, is a nebula about 5000 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius. NGC 6559 comprises reddish emission nebulae, bluish reflection nebulae and dark clouds. The reddish emission nebulae consist of hydrogen, which emits light on the Hα line. The bluish reflection nebulae are illuminated by young stars. The dark clouds consist of cold molecules and dust. The nebula was discovered on July 1, 1826 by the astronomer John Herschel with his 48-cm telescope.



And now a few key facts about the creation of the image:
I started with this mosaic on June 20, 2021, a good 2 1/2 years ago, there were 19 nights in total - since M8 is rather low in the sky, there were some nights when I was able to record just 2 hours! The development, calibration and image processing took a good 90 hours (with several failed attempts / reprocessing and often months in between ^^) The most difficult part was definitely getting rid of the light pollution gradients and then creating a harmonious mosaic.
The special thing about this astro image is that it was taken in the middle of the city from my small balcony observatory, in a very light-polluted sky, with Bortle 7-8. The nebula was between 5° and 25° above the horizon in the sky when the images were taken.

| Objects : M8, M20, NGC6559
| Stack RGB : each 80x 180s Lights LRGB / 100 Darks / 25 Flats / 500 Bias
| EBVTools : Pixinsight / Adobe PS&LR / GraXpert / AstraImage / APF-R
| Pixinsight : Blur X-, Noise X-, Star X Terminator, HDR compilation
| Guiding : PHD2 & ZWO-ASI120 Mono / N.I.N.A. 
| Mount/Optics : AZ-EQ6 GT Pro / Skywatcher 150PDS
| Camera : Atik 16200 Mono & Filra / BW 750mm
| Filter RGB : Astronomik LRGB
| Stuff : Lacerta OCTO+ 2"/ aperture ring / Lacerta MFOK