M20 Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius - a photo on Flickriver

M20 Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius

            The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. Its name means 'three-lobe'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the relatively dense, reddish-pink portion), a reflection nebula (the mainly blue portion you can see above that), and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' that divide the red portion).

There are three types of nebulae: Emission, Reflection and Dark. The Trifid Nebula has them all! 

Emission Nebulae consist of ionized hydrogen atoms (H II). The energy that is responsible for ionizing and heating the hydrogen in an emission nebula comes from a central star that has a surface temperature in excess of 20,000 K.

Reflection Nebulae reflect the light of a nearby star or stars toward Earth rather than emitting their own light. They consist of dust which reflects starlight and appears blue in photographs.

Dark Nebulae do not emit or reflect light and therefore block light from anything beyond them so appear as a starless regions in the sky.

The  blue reflection nebula is often shown as much more vivid, but in this picture it has been 'toned down' by the light-pollution filter on my Seestar.

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Picture taken using:

Seestar S50 with LP filter
340 Lights at 10 seconds
 
Bortle 5 sky.
Integrated and processed in PixInsight.

Captions added in Photoshop CS4

Taken on: June 21, 2024

Tags:

messier20

m20

nebula

emission

dark

trifid

seestar

s50

astronomy

astrophotography

pixinsight

photoshop « less

Sets appears in: • Astronomy • Messier Objects more » • Nebulae • Seestar S50 « less

Groups appears in: • Astrophotography - Astronomy - Astrophysics • astrometry more » • BBC Sky at Night and Stargazing Live • Amateur Astro-Photography • Seestar S50 « less

Stats: 189 views

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