M 08 - THE LAGOON NEBULA

Sagittarius

(ra: 18:0.3:8 / dec -24:23)

DATA

TYPE: Emission and Relexion nebula

VISUAL BRIGHTNESS: 5.8

SIZE: 90 arcs minutes

DISTANCE: 5200 light years

OBJECT DESCRIPTION

The lagoon Nebula is one of the most remarkables objects not only in Sagittarius but in the whole sky. Comparable with the Orion Nebula in its beauty and brightness, it is visible with binoculars. this instrument allows to cover M08 completely. The Lagoon Nebula spreads along 90 x 40 arcs minutes (the size of three moons).  The extension of M08 covers an area of 140 x 60 light years. The Hourglass Nebula is located in its center (visible in the image) and is an active star formation region. As usual happens in this type of objects the discovery came after a star cluster, in this case NGC 6530 in the year 1680 by John Flamsteed. Charles Messier catalogued in 1764.

The image was taken with the guide scope, a cheap Synta refractor 70/400. Not excatly f5.71 since baffles are placed to reduce even more the diameter of the scope. It was used only an area of 752 x 518 pixels coming from 3504 x 2336 pixels.

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Synta 70/400 refractor

MOUNT Vixen GPDX. Sky Sensor 2000

CAMERA: Canon DSRL 20Da @ F ??

GUIDING: Celestron SCT 8

FILTERS: IDAS Huteche LPS

SKY CONDITIONS: visual magnitud 4

EXPOSURES: 40 Minutes (8 x 300 secs).

PROCESSING: Calibrated darks, flats & bias in ImagesPlus 2.75. Photoshop CS