Southern Hemisphere/Remote Images

M20 The Trifid Nebula

One of my favorite images I have ever taken. Although it is also present in our northern skies I couldnt resist remotely imaging this nebula with a huge 27" astrograph at Siding Spring Observatory located in NSW Australia. The Trifid Nebula is an H II region located in Sagittarius. Its name means 'divided into three lobes'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars; an emission nebula (the lower, red portion), a reflection nebula (the upper, blue portion) and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' within the emission nebula that cause the trifurcated appearance.