A Trick of Light Upon Our Eyes—A Trick of Time Upon Our Lives – The Hourglass in Messier 8
August 7, 2024
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Messier 8 (M8), the Lagoon Nebula, has a bright central region John Herschel named the “Hourglass Nebula” because of its swirling, double-triangle shape. It’s an area of prolific star forming and contains dark swirls as well as bright gaseous portions ionized by massive stars that cause it to generate its own light.
I’ve created a slideshow above a narrowband image taken with specialized filters to isolate the structures of ionized hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur gases and a true-color image.
The title above comes from the lyrics of this song, which we played at my oldest friend's funeral in 2010 after he died far too young at the age of 50. I can't even listen to this song now, but it continually rings in my head. The universe is old, and will get far older. But we’re only here a very short time to experience the wonder of it all:
Image Capture
Location:
Deep Sky West
Camera:
Total integration: 39h 17m
Integration per filter:
- Lum: 7h 3m (141 × 180")
- R: 4h 47m (99 × 180")
- G: 4h 42m (94 × 180")
- B: 4h 45m (95 × 180")
- Hα: 5h 20m (64 × 300")
- S2: 5h 15m (63 × 300")
- O3: 7h 15m (87 × 300")
Coordinates: 18h 2m 11s · -23° 32′ 44″
Moravian C5a-100M
Finding Chart
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Telescope
Takahashi TOA130
Astrobin Top Pick Nomination
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