The Trifid Nebula - posted 5/24/07

One of my favorite objects, M20 has a striking combination of red emission and blue reflection nebulosity. At minus 23 degrees declination this object rides very low in my sky. In the warm Summer months it is well positioned but the air is usually hazy. This image was shot in May while it was still cool. The two nights that I shot this image the temperature was about 45 degrees fahrenheit and extremely clear. I stayed up to begin the imaging at around 00:30AM, set my alarm and got up again at 4:30AM to break down the equipment. I took the opportunity to take sky flats before putting my stuff away, they worked quite nicely. My reward for two days of sleep deprivation was some good data for this image, which I'm pretty happy with.