M8 Lagoon surprises

[Special K]

Getting in some last looks of summer nebulae while away, it was hard not to be impressed with the Lagoon in particular. Like Orion, this one never disappoints due to its brightness and structure.  Naked eye, it stood out quite clearly amidst the rich Milky Way.  At 19x with the O-III this gave an incredible vista of M8 and its neighbors.  

M20 Triffid was an obvious diffuse patch at the edge of a bright star field striking a lovely balance with the M21 cluster on the opposite side of that field.  I swapped out the filter to get a better look at this glowing mass of dim stars.  Looking back, I should have increased the mag on the Triffid to look for divisions in the structure.

Faint nebula NGC 6526 sits between the Lagoon and Triffid and looked more pronounced with averted vision.

The diamond amidst all these deep sky gems was to pick up the globular cluster NGC 6544 in the same FOV.  It's nice to have some variety!

The Lagoon itself had an obvious hollow zone around two bright stars near the center and a lovely diffused cloud stretched far out in several directions.  Embedded within is the little cluster NGC 6530 which looks just a puff at 19x.  Swapping up to 68x this looked remarkable!  The puff expands into a small cloud of evenly spaced stars of the same magnitude. 

The collage is completed by lots of nearby clusters like Cr367 and NGC 6546 plus others.  I really felt the urge to sketch this one for the scrapbook.  Clear skies!

[cotterless45]

What a beautiful inspiring sketch , thanks for posting !

Nick.

[Special K]

27 minutes ago, cotterless45 said:

What a beautiful inspiring sketch , thanks for posting !

Nick.

Thanks Nick. I enjoyed doing it and think I'll put pencil to paper more often!

[FenlandPaul]

Awesome sketch and report, Kevin - sounds like you could hae explored the area all night!

I assume you're somewhere further south (and darker) than St Albans at the moment?  From when I worked there and more recently in nearby Hemel, I doubt  the lagoon ever features very prominently in the murk to the south!  Happy hols if you are.

Paul

[Special K]

12 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

Awesome sketch and report, Kevin - sounds like you could hae explored the area all night!

I assume you're somewhere further south (and darker) than St Albans at the moment?  From when I worked there and more recently in nearby Hemel, I doubt  the lagoon ever features very prominently in the murk to the south!  Happy hols if you are.

Paul

Thanks Paul, and I did indeed make a night of it!  We were in Menorca at a pretty good location last week and I had a couple nights down at the beach.  Home now. LP and high trees make the Lagoon unlikely for me here but think I can manage the Swan though. 

[YKSE]

Very Nice Sketch