SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Jon Greif
Location of Photo:
Alpine, CA, USA
Date/Time of photo:
July 8-9, 2024, between 10 pm and 1 am PDT
Equipment:
ZWO Seestar 50 mm F5 "smart scope" with 2 band (Ha and O3) filter. Processing with Pixinsight software.
Description:
This is the Lagoon Nebula, M8, about 5,000 light-years away, and roughly 130 light-years in length. It lies within the constellation Sagittarius. The Lagoon Nebula is an emission nebula, composed primarily of hydrogen. This image is just one hour of integration time, shot through a Narrow Band filter passing exclusively the Hydrogen and Oxygen gas spectra. M8 is a stellar nursery - a place where new stars are born. An open star cluster – NGC 6530 – made of hot, blue stars just a few million years old lies within M8. In addition to these young stars, there are also many dark Bok globules (dark nebulae) of condensing gas and dust. These are on their way to becoming stars.
