BASUDEB CHAKRABARTI
Location: Heaven’s Mirror Observatory, Australia
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED “The Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8) and Trifid Nebula (Messier 20), combined are a giant interstellar cloud in the northwest of Sagittarius in a star-forming region in the Milky Way’s Scutum-Centaurus Arm. They are classified as an emission nebula and as an H II region.
The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000 and 6,000 light years away from Earth. In the sky of Earth it spans 90 by 40 arcminutes, which translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. The nebula contains a number of Bok globules. The Lagoon Nebula also contains a structure at its centre known as the Hourglass Nebula. The Trifid Nebula is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula, reflection nebula and dark nebula.”