13th October 2012 AstroPhoMo (Astro Photo Month)

Finally snagged a shot of the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae in Sagittarius.  I've been chasing this all week but up till now have found that when I get out and organised they have set too far to the west behind some tree branches surrounding my viewing site.   This image is made of three frames from about thirty unguided shots. There was too much movement in the other frames.

Thankfully the using the highest ISO available to me (1600) to maximize the sensitivity of the shot in the short time of 30 the second frames has provided some good detail despite it only amounting to a minute and a half of exposure in total in the three frames used.

I really love these two nebulae and how you can combine them in the one shot.   You can see the very striking trification of the dark lanes in the smaller "Trifid" Nebula to the right of the image. Also note the very vibrant open star cluster contained within the Lagoon Nebula on the left of the image.

I think best estimates put the Lagoon Nebula at 4000 light years in distance.