A wide field view of a great Nebula region near the center of our Galaxy!!!M8 The Lagoon Emission Nebula Complex, this Great Nebula is visible to the unaided eye from a dark location,
but looks much better in binoculars or a small telescope.
The Lagoon Nebula M8 is a Massive & very active Stellar Nursery (Star Formation Region) with embedded bright Star Cluster NGC-6523
The Lagoon is Located 5,000 light years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius in the direction of the Center of the Milky Way.
The Glowing Gas & Dust cloud spans well over 60 light years across (348 trillion miles)
Above M8 The Lagoon is the beautiful Trifid Emission/Blue Reflection Nebula known as M20, along with Open Star Cluster M21, and below the Lagoon Nebula is 7.5 magnitude NGC-6544 Globular Star Cluster.
To the left edge of the Lagoon you will see several fainter Blue Reflection Nebulae IC-4681, IC1275,IC-4685, and NGC-6559.
I captured this image with my modified Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR & Canon 200mm lens from the Vacation Cabin in Northern, Michigan on 07-21-2014!
This is a 21 minute exposure (7 x 3 minutes subs), ISO 1600, F5.0, tracking on a CG-4 mount.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
