M20 – Trifid Nebula

M20, the Trifid Nebula, is located the Sagittarius. It is a combination of an emission nebula, the ionized hydrogen in red, a reflection nebula, the blue part lighten by a star, and a dark nebula, the apparent ‘gaps’ within the emission nebula that cause the trifid appearance. There is also M21, a star cluster, on the upper left.

45 exposures of 3 minutes. 10 darks, 10 flats.
Camera : Canon EOS 1000D unfiltered
Telescope : Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor.
Mount : Takahashi EM-200 USD3.
Guiding : Orion Starshoot Autoguider on a William Optic Zenithstar 66SD refractor.
Sensor temperature : 7°C
Software : auto-guiding and acquisition with MaximDL, pre-processing with Iris, processing with photoshop.
Location : Charmant Som, France.