This image is composed of 38 three minute exposures that were taken between 12:30 to 3:00 AM last night (July 30). It was very hot and humid, but no wind and I just had to shoot something.
The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is an H II (reds) region in the north-west of Sagittarius in a star-forming region in the Milky Way's Scutum-Centaurus Arm. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. Its name means 'three-lobe'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (a relatively dense, red-yellow portion), a reflection nebula (the mainly NNE blue portion), and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' in the former that cause the trifurcated appearance also designated Barnard 85).
The most massive star that has formed in this region is HD 164492A, an O7.5III star with a mass more than 20 times the mass of the Sun. This star is surrounded by a cluster of approximately 3100 young stars.
Info from Wikipedia.
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