Canon 30D Unmodified, Astronomik CLS filter
Orion ED80 with WO 0.8 reducer
13x300sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias

The Lagoon Nebula is a distance of 4,100 light years from earth, and measures 110 by 50 light years. The nebula contains a number of globules, dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material, the most prominent of which are Barnard 88, 89, and 296
It also contains the so-called "Hourglass Nebula", the bright part at it's center.

In the lower left corner of the frame, find the small 8th magnitude globular cluster NGC6544.

Also, in the upper left corner of the image is NGC6559 - part of the same cloud of nebulosity making up M8.
While not well represented here, it contains patches of red emission nebulae as well as blue reflection nebulae and dark opaque nebulae, one of which can be seen just below and to the left of the brightest star in that nebula.

In M8 itself, find open cluster NGC6530

June 10, 2007