M8 - The Lagoon Nebula

The nebula gets its name from the fact that the main cloud is bi-sected by a dark region in its middle resembling a lagoon on an island. The young open star cluster NGC 6530, here seen to the left of the "lagoon" was formed from the gas and dust comprising the nebula. The numerous dark knots in the nebula are areas where the hydrogen cloud is collapsing on itself in the process of forming new stars.

M8 lies at a distance of approximately 5200 light-years.

Date/Location:    July 8, 2005     Griffin/Hunter Observatory    Bethune, SC
Instrument:    Canon 350D Digital SLR (modified) through 10" Meade LX-200
Focal Ratio:   f4 via Lumicon GEG focal reducer
Guiding:    Auto via SBIG ST-237 through Orion ED80
Conditions:    Visually clear with some passing clouds
Weather:    68 F
Exposure: 35 minutes total (7 x 5 minutes) @ ISO 800
Filters:    Baader UV/IR Block
Processing:    Focused and captured with DSLRFocus. RAW to TIFF conversion, frame calibrations, alignment, Digital Development, Adaptive Richardson_Lucy deconvolution, scaling and JPEG conversion with ImagesPlus. Noise reduction with NeatImage.

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