SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Jon Greif
Location of Photo:
Siding Springs Observatory, NSW, Australia, imaged remotely from La Jolla, CA, USA
Date/Time of photo:
May 24, 2022, between 10 pm and midnight local time
Equipment:
Planewave 20 inch CDK imaging platform, 90 minutes integration time divided evenly between red, green and blue filters (6 x 300 sec each), processed with Pixinsight 1.8.9.
Description:
The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20) is a Hydrogen gas region in the north-west of Sagittarius in a star-forming region in the Milky Way's Scutum-Centaurus Arm. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the relatively dense, reddish-pink portion), a reflection nebula (the blue portion), and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' in the former that cause the trifurcated appearance. The Trifid Nebula is centered about 4100 light-years from Earth. This image was processed from data obtained remotely from the iTelescope.net Siding Springs Observatory in NSW, Australia.
