Photo of the Week for September 13, 2013
Photographing under the dark skies found on Ontario’s Manitoulin Island, Richard Beyko of Waterloo, Ontario, captured this image of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) region in Sagittarius on July 6, 2013. The Lagoon is near centre, the Trifid Nebula (M20) is at upper right, and the globular cluster NGC6544 is at lower left. M8 and M20 are about 5,000 light-years distant; NGC6544 is twice that distance. Beyko captured the scene using a Celestron 800 Edge HD Schmidt-Cassegrain Hyperstar f/2 telescope, shooting with a Celestron Nightscape CCD. Total exposure time was 2 hours.