Wallpaper author:
Michelle Ashford
13 Nov 2023
The Trifid Nebula
The Trifid Nebula, M20, was discovered by Charles Messier on 5 June 1764. It is a large star-forming region located in Sagittarius, has a diameter of 42 ly and is approx. 5,200 ly from Earth.
The object consists of three types of nebula and an open star cluster. The open cluster is surrounded by an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and a dark nebula (gives M20 the trifurcated appearance). The dark nebula was catalogued by Edward Barnard and is designated as B85.
Dataset from which the image was processed
M20
3 credit
- Type of target............................................................................................................................Emission Nebula
- Camera............................................................................................................................QHY 600M
- Target coordinates............................................................................................................................RA 270.6038 Dec -23.0018
- Hemisphere............................................................................................................................Southern
- Telescope location............................................................................................................................Chile
- Transient event............................................................................................................................No
- Observed on............................................................................................................................16 Jun 2023 - 25 Oct 2023
Filter | Avg Exp (s) | Total Exposure | Subframes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Halpha | 1000 | 2h30m | 9 |
| Blue | 200 | 30m | 9 |
| Luminance | 100 | 15m | 9 |
| Red | 100 | 15m | 9 |
| Green | 100 | 15m | 9 |