This is a rich area of gas and dust in our Milky Way. The area to the left side of the image
illustrates how dense the stars, gas and dust are. The two colorful objects near image center are two nebulae, areas of stars and dust resulting from prior, massive, star explosions. The largest and most red of the two is Messier Object 8 (M8), also known as the Lagoon Nebula. To the right is Messier Object 20 (M20), also known as the Trifid Nebula due to the three petal shape of its red area. These objects lie between 4,000 and 6,000 light years from us. At a very dark viewing site, they can be seen by the naked eye in the constellation Sagittarius.

Photo Information
Date:
July 17, 2007
Location:
Copper Breaks Stae Park, Texas
A dark site with great skies
Telescope/Lens:
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 II(USM)Autofocus lens, operating at f/2.8
Mount:
Takahashi EM-10 Guided in RA by an SBIG ST-237 thru the Orion 80ED f/7.5 600mm FL telescope
Camera:
Canon 300D Modified; Controlled by ImagesPlus (IP)
Camera and lens piggybacked on Orion 80ED telescope
Exposures:
15 images at 4 minutes each; ISO 400;
Total exposure time 60 minutes
Processing:
Images dark calibrated, aligned and average combined in IP
Adjusted composition, sharpening and color in Photoshop CS
Conditions:
Moderate wind; transparent Mag 7 skies; 7/10 seeing; 75 degrees F