The H II region Messier 20 (M20, NGC 6514, "Trifid nebula") in the constellation Sagittarius on
July 12/13, 2013 and on June 13, 2020. The Trifid nebula is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the red portion to the right of the
image), a reflection nebula (the blue portion to the left of the image) and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' within the emission nebula that cause
the trifid appearance - these are also designated Barnard 85). Messier 20 is about 5,000 light years from earth and was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764
(source: Wikipedia).
Forty-three 3 minute exposures at ISO 800 were added for this shot with the DeepSkyStacker software (resulting in a 2 hour and 43 minute exposure)
and the final image processing was done in Photoshop.
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Equipment: Canon EOS 450D Baader modified camera, TeleVue Paracorr Type II coma corrector,
16" f/4.5 "Ninja" dobsonian telescope riding on a dual-axis Tom Osypowski equatorial
platform, Lacerta MGEN autoguider, Lacerta off axis system (field of view comparison:
image of the moon with the same equipment).
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