DIFFUSE NEBULAE
Messier 8 (Lagoon Nebula), Messier 20 (Trifid Nebula) and NGC 6544
I missed the framing on this image - but it came out better than I thought. Intended to just shoot M8 and M20 (the two reddish/pinkish areas). In the end, I cut off M20 (at lower right) a little bit - but managed to grab NGC 6544, the star cluster in the upper left hand corner.
The main object, just left of center, is the Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8. The Lagoon Nebula is a star-forming region. It is a giant cloud of glowing interstellar gas divided by a dark lane of dust. It contains a cluster of young stars that have formed from the nebula. It lies in the direction of our galaxy’s core, in the constellation of Sagittarius, at a distance of 4,800 - 6,000 light years.
I hope to image this nebula again to gather more data. This was not enough integration time on this target. Imaged with a Canon T5i on the AT65 telescope on the EQ8 mount. Details/tech data here.