The Lagoon Nebula is a relatively young and bright star forming region composed of clouds of gas and dust, and containing a cluster of bright young stars. The colors seen in this and other photographs of M8 are the result of energy produced by the bright, hot young stars exciting the gas molecules and causing them to glow.

From our vantage point on Earth, the Lagoon Nebula, which is about 5,200 light years away, appears in the constellation Sagittarius, and can be seen with the naked eye from areas with dark skies. The dark lanes that nearly cut it in half and give the nebula it's popular name are dense clouds of dust that partially obscure the glowing clouds of gas.

While sorting through hundreds of old images on my PC I came across 47 photos of M8 taken about 16 months previously. M8 is not an easy photographic subject from my location, lying relatively low in the southern sky where significant light pollution from a nearby city obscures it. At the time I took these photos I was still struggling with the image processing aspects of digital astrophotography, and I couldn't produce a decent image from the photos. When I rediscovered the photos I decided to give it another try - the result is not one of the best images of M8, but definitely worth keeping.

The 47 frames used for this image total 22 minutes and 45 seconds of exposure time, at ISO 1600, with a Canon Digital Rebel XT. The camera was mounted at the prime focus of my 203mm f/4.9 newtonian reflector. The telescope was mounted along with an 80mm f/11 guide scope on an Orion Atlas equatorial mount, and guiding was accomplished with a Meade DSI-C camera through PHD Guiding software. The separate images were calibrated, aligned and combined with Iris software, and final touches were applied in Photoshop.