Photo of the Week for August 12, 2016
Summer is prime time for exploring our home galaxy. The Sagittarius Milky Way is a particular favourite for observers and astrophotographers alike. The region is rich with splashy star fields and alluring nebulas. Western Sagittarius features two of the season’s finest nebulas—the Lagoon (M8), near the centre of this photo, and the Trifid (M20), which lies slightly above (north-northwest) of the Lagoon. Both objects show well in small telescopes under dark skies.
This wide-field shot of the nebulous pair was captured by Marc Ricard at the Montreal RASC’s Wooly Woods dark-sky site, located south of Montreal, Quebec. The final image consists of a stack of nine, 60-second exposures shot at ISO 1600 with a Canon EOS 60D DSLR camera and 85mm Rokinon lens.
