Messier Objects
I highly recommend a book on Charles Messier and the creation of this catalogue - Atlas of Messier Objects, 2008 by Ronald Stoyan.
Note: This gallery should be automatically sorted by Messier #.
Messier M8 - NGC6523 & NGC6530 - Gum 72 - Lagoon Nebula and Cluster - 25/7/2012 (Processed stack)
First use of the Canon 40D - on a familar subject.
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 85% of 12 Images ISO 800 120 Sec, 43 DARK, 0 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed by Photoshop CS5
Telescope - Jean Marie Locci's PowerNewt 200mm at f/4 with Baader MPCC Coma Corrector, Hutech LPS-P2 filter, Canon 400D DSLR - field 64'x95', Ambient 5C. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Star Shoot Auto Guider.
messierm8 lagoon nebula and clusterngcngc6523 ngc6530 m8 lagoon nebula and clustergalactic nebulaopen clustergumgum72
