Commonly known as the Lagoon Nebula, M8 was discovered in 1654 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna, who, like Charles Messier, sought to catalog nebulous objects in the night sky so they would not be mistaken for comets. This star-forming cloud of interstellar gas is located in the constellation Sagittarius and its apparent magnitude of 6 makes it faintly visible to the naked eye in dark skies. The best time to observe M8 is during August.
Located 5,200 light-years from Earth, M8 is home to its own star cluster: NGC 6530 (not visible in the image above). The massive stars embedded within the nebula give off enormous amounts of ultraviolet radiation, ionizing the gas and causing it to shine. NASA
Imaging Data:
Image: M8
Date: 8/14/2020 reprocessed on 8/5/2024
Exposure: 30 sec
Number of Lights: 148 lights for 1H and 14M of which 105 were used for 52.5 minutes
Gain: 120
Binning: 1×1
Camera Type: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Cooling Temp: 0 deg C
Filter: STC Astro Duo-Narrowband Filter
Telescope: Celestron 1100HD SCT
Mount : 10MICRON GM1000HPS
Focuser: MicroTouch Focuser