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

Planetarium overlay

Enable overlay
Show stars
Label stars
Show deep sky objects
Label deep sky objects
Show constellation boundaries
Show constellation sticks
Show constellation labels
Show RA/Dec grid

Constellation

Sagittarius

Field centre

RA: 18^h03^m
Dec: -24°25'
Position angle: -0°36'

Field size

1°52' × 1°15'

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_less_Ha.jpg (5.0 MB)

Like this image

Oliver Hext, Dominic Ford, Callum Potter, Andy Wilson, Manolo_Rodriguez, Mike Greenhill-Hooper

Comments

David Davies, 2025 Aug 28 - 11:44 UTC

I've had another look at this image and decided the H-alpha component was a bit too much. This is a re-edit.

Copyright of all images and other observations submitted to the BAA remains with the owner of the work. Reproduction of work by third parties is expressly forbidden without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting images to this online gallery, you grant the BAA permission to reproduce them in any of our publications.

Registered charity no. 210769
Registered company no. 117572

For more information including contact details, click here.

Our Terms of Use are here.

Our Privacy Policy is here.