Widefield view M8 and M20

Widefield view of the expansive Lagoon nebula (M8) and colorful Trifid nebula (M20) in the constellation Sagittarius, against the background of dense star fields of the (Sagittarius arm of the) Milky Way.

Image realised with the AUS-2 telescope: a Takahashi FSQ-106ED (106 mm) F3.6 telescope, situated in Heaven's Mirror Observatory, Australia.

Both M8 and M20 are well-known star forming H II regions, about 5000 light-years distant from Earth.

On the left of M8 (about one degree west of it), the forgotten neighbour emission nebula IC 4685 can be seen. On top of M20 one can also notice the open star cluster M21.

Total exposure time of 80 minutes; 4 subs of 300s with each of the LRGB-filters