Messier M8 - NGC6523 - Lagoon Nebula and Cluster- 1/4/2011 (Processed Cropped stack)

Also see late 2012 reprocessed version.

The Lagoon Nebula is a giant interstellar cloud ~4100 LY away in the constellation Sagittarius. The pink/red glow is caused by ionised Hydrogen gas. The ionisation comes from extremely bright young stars with high Ultraviolet light output. M8 is just visible to the naked eye in dark skies and easily seen in binoculars. It spans 90' x 40' which is ~3 x 1 full moon diameters and at its distance equates to 110 x 50 LY. Imagine the energy required to light that up!

DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 Stacked 80% of 21 Images ISO 800 180 Sec, 15 DARK, 0 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed by Photoshop CS4

Telescope - Apogee OrthoStar LOMO 80/480 with Hotech SCA Field Flattener, Hutech IDAS LPS-P2 filter, Canon 400D DSLR, Ambient xxC not noted. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Star Shoot Auto Guider.

messierm8 lagoon nebula and clusterngcngc6523 m8 lagoon nebula and clustergalactic nebulaopen cluster

From 2011 Honing of Skills