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M8 in the constellation Sagittarius is known as the Lagoon Nebula. Visually it is only possible to see the brightest areas, although it is stll an impressive sight. Sagittarius never gets high in the sky even in the south of Britain, which is a shame because the area contains some of the most beautiful emission nebulae, of which the Lagoon is arguably the finest. The image on the right shows six deep sky objects, of which M8 is the most prominent. Above and slightly left of M8 is the Trifid Nebula M20. Left of that is the open cluster M21. Forming a triangle again to the left of M8 and M20 is the small, faint open cluster NGC6546. Looking down now from M8 again slightly left, a faint fuzz just above a star is the globular cluster NGC6544, and finally, again to the left of M8 is the large but sparse open cluster Cr367. This image was taken using a camera and lens on a driven mount. Exposure was probably about thirty minutes. The close up used a 12 inch telescope as the lens, and about a twenty minute exposure.