| M 20 (NGC 6514) Trifid Nebula The Trifid Nebula (Messier 20 or M20 & NGC 6514) reside within the constellation of Sagittarius. The name Trifid refers to the three lobe appearance of the red emission portion along with a blue reflection nebulosity and an open star cluster. The dark dust lanes (dark nebula is designated Barnards 85. This object shows up well in armature telescopes reviling lots of detail and visible to the naked eye (magnitude 6.3) at dark sky locations. The actual distance is estimated at 4000 light years, although some stars associated with M20 are 2700 to 5700 light years distant. M20 itself is approximately 25 light years in diameter, roughly 15000'xs larger than our solar system. Recent images that go deeper reveal a blue glow around the main red emission portion of the Trifid indicating that some of the reflected nebulosity runs behind and around the red portion. Earlier shots I've taken did not reveal this, but CCD images of a couple hours or more reveal this phenomenon. NASA's Spitzer Space telescope discovered 30 embryonic & 120 newborn stars within the Trifid in 2005. |
| Telescope / Lens | TEC 140 f/7 |
| Mount Type | Astrophysics 1200 |
| Camera | SBIG ST10XME |
| Filters | Astrodon LRGB e-series of balanced filters (generation 1) |
| Film | CCD |
| Exposure | 150 minutes (2 hours 30 minutes) LRGB (L=75 m (15x5) RGB=25 each, 5 min. subs |
| Processing | CCDSoft, CCDStack, AIP, Photoshop CS2 |
| Date | 07/19/2009 |
| Location | Snow Peak, S/E of Cottage Grove, Oregon 122° 52' 35" W,
43° 31' 21"N |
| Conditions | 4658' elevation, magnitude 6 Skies; Clear ; Humidity 65-80% 51 degrees, wind 0-3 M.P.H. |