Lagoon Nebula - M8 (NGC 6523)

The Lagoon nebula is approximately 5,200 light years away. The full nebula is about 130 light years across. This image is of the cetral part of the lagoon nebula (approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the full nebula).

 It was taken on from my suburban backyard obs on a nice cold winter night (about 3 degrees celsius). It was very low on the eastern horizon and I was not expecting to get that much detail but was pleasantly surprised.

The image is a total duration of 100 minutes exposure, about 25 x 5min on the 12" LX200R and a QHY8 Tec Cooled Camera. I did not take any darks (only because I forgot too, but the QHY8 camera is very forgiving with background noise as it is cooled to approximately -30C.