Lagoon Nebula

I recently posted a picture of a big swath of the Milky Way. Here is a close-up picture of a teeny section of that big picture.

I took it back on June 24 and didn't post it because the stars aren't exactly round, and I hope to get a better shot someday. But I think I may go ahead and post some closeup images from that big star field, even if they aren't perfect. It is interesting to see the details hiding in the wide field view.

The Triffid nebula (M20/21) is at the top of the close-up photo. The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is a little below center. The yellow fuzzy thing along the bottom, a little to the left of the Lagoon Nebula is NCG 6544.

The whole picture shows roughly 4 degrees by 3 degrees of the sky and is roughly shown by the area that I boxed in yellow in a copy of the wide field photo that I re-posted here.

If you want to see a 1024x768 version of this picture, click here.