M8 or commonly known as the Lagoon Nebula, is a star-forming region in Sagittarius. It is only one of two emission nebulae that can be seen with the naked eye from most dark sky areas. The other one is the very bright Orion Nebula (M42).
This is a very well photographed object, and there are plenty of other images that are more detailed than the one I’ve captured. The name lagoon comes from the separation caused by the dark line going across the nebula center.
The dark area separating the nebula hence the name Lagoon Nebula
This is my first real Astro image that looks good. In angular size, the full extent of the nebula is about three times the moon’s size. The bright nature of the nebula is from the hot ionized hydrogen gas in the stellar nursery.
I did not edit this image. I had a very kind Redditor help me get this image to life.
Here you can see the area of the sky in Sagittarius imaged.
Acquisition Data
- Telescope: Orion ShortTube 80mm f/5 Orion ST 80mm
- Camera: Canon T5i
- Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G
- Software: Pixinsight
- Other Accessories: AstroZap Dew Heater
- Exposure Time: 31 minutes 30 seconds (21 X 90 seconds) 28 minutes of data stacked
- Exposure Start: 01: 07 AM
- Date: June 29, 2014
- Location: Cherry Springs, Pennsylvania, United States
- GPS Coordinates: Lat. 41.66384, Long. -77.82321
- Temperature: 66°F/19°C
- Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 2.00
- Avg. Moon age: 1.97 days
- Avg. Moon phase: 4.34%
- RA center: 18h 6′ 22″
- DEC center: -24° 14′ 13″
- Orientation: -174.602 degrees
- Field radius: 1.920 degrees
- Magnitude: 6
- Resolution: 5208×3476
