The Trifid Nebula

Named for the three lobes formed by the dustlanes, the Trifid is a showpiece emission and reflection nebula Sagittarius. This image was taken at Jon Wood field after the June 2012 chapter meeting. Taken with a SBIG ST8-XME, CFW9, and AO-8 adaptive optics through an Orion 6 inch Ritchey Chretien. Luminance 12x5 minutes, 12x2 minutes 2x2 binned each for RGB.