Object Information                                            Imaging Details

The Trifid Nebula (aka M20) is one of the treasures of the Summer Milky Way. The colorful nebula glows red due to glowing, ionized hydrogen gas and blue because of reflected starlight. The nebula is about 9000 light years from Earth, and thought to be quite young (300k years old).

M20 is observable in binoculars or a small telescope. It's quite close to the bigger, brighter Lagoon nebula (M8) in Sagittarius.

This object was imaged at the 2014 Texas Star Party.

Clicking on the image in the left pane above will open a larger image.

Telescope:

Celestron C11 (carbon fiber tube)