Observation by David Davies: The Lagoon Nebula, M 8

Uploaded by

David Davies

Observer

David Davies

Observed

2025 Aug 16 - 22:58

Uploaded

2025 Aug 19 - 16:10

Objects

The Lagoon Nebula (M8)
NGC6544

Equipment

APM 107 refractor
ZWO ASI 071 MC Pro camera
Antlia Luminance and Ha/OIII filters
SW EQ 8 Mount

Exposure

40 x 120s RGB, 3 x 300s Ha/OIII

Location

Cambridge, UK

Target name

The Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8

Title

The Lagoon Nebula, M 8

About this image

The skies have been darkening since mid-summer, but a full Moon has hindered observations in recent days. Last Saturday, a beautiful, clear evening was suddenly provided, and a few hours before the Moon rose.

I turned my attention to Messier 8. This has been on my observing list for years, but is very elusive from my location. It skims across the late evening sky at a very low elevation (13 deg) and is mostly hidden by trees and the wall of my observatory. The final sub-frames of this image include smeared images of the branches of trees.

I had two hours available to see what I could capture.

I've been enjoying exploring the image and discovering the various features within it, including the Hourglass Nebula, so named by John Herschel. I will post an enlargement of the central part of the nebula to bring out this feature. To the bottom right of the main image, we can see the mag 11 globular cluster, NGC 6544.

Files associated with this observation

M8_HORGB-web.jpg (1.3 MB)

Like this image

Oliver Hext, Dominic Ford, Brendan Tynan, Callum Potter

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