M8 and M20
Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae

Other names: Lagoon Nebula (NGC6523) and Trifid Nebula (NGC 6514)
Optics: Takahashi FSQ-106ED at f/5
Mount: Mountain Instruments MI-250 w/Gemini on ATS pier
Camera: Canon 20D [ Hutech Type I ]
Exposure: 11 minutes [ 22 x 30 seconds ] at ISO 800
Accessories:
Location: Joshua Tree, CA [ Cottonwood Spring ]
Date June 16, 2007
Notes: Processing: Image acquisition with EOS Capture. Aligned and combined with ImagesPlus 2.8. Levels, curves, unsharp mask, resized in Photoshop. No flat frames. Uncropped.

M8 (The Lagoon Nebula) and M20 (The Trifid Nebula) are gaseous regions amidst dense star fields all within the constellation Sagittarius.

I had a driver issue which prevented me from taking exposures longer than 30 seconds. On my previous attempt, I didn't have a guide scope. One of these days, I'm going to get a long integration of this region! See my previous attempt of this same area using a Stellarvue SV80S.

Click the image for a larger version (1800 x 1200, ~3.0 MB).