Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 October 7 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. NGC 6559: East of the Lagoon Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Roberto Sartori Explanation: Slide your telescope just east of the Lagoon Nebula to find this [5]alluring field of view in the rich starfields of the constellation Sagittarius toward the central Milky Way. Of course the Lagoon nebula is also known as M8, the eighth object listed in [6]Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright nebulae and star clusters. [7]Close on the sky but slightly fainter than M8, this complex of nebulae was left out of Messier's list though. It contains obscuring dust, striking red emission and blue reflection nebulae of star-forming region [8]NGC 6559 at right. Like M8, NGC 6559 is located about 5,000 light-years away along the edge of a large molecular cloud. [9]At that distance, this telescopic frame nearly 3 full moons wide would span about 130 light-years. Global Moon Party: NASA's Night Sky Network: [10]Saturday, October 9 Tomorrow's picture: when stars play guitars __________________________________________________________________ [11]< | [12]Archive | [13]Submissions | [14]Index | [15]Search | [16]Calendar | [17]RSS | [18]Education | [19]About APOD | [20]Discuss | [21]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [22]Robert Nemiroff ([23]MTU) & [24]Jerry Bonnell ([25]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [26]Specific rights apply. [27]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [28]ASD at [29]NASA / [30]GSFC & [31]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2110/NGC6559Sartori.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/robyx/ 5. https://www.astrobin.com/pxnp3i/D/ 6. https://www.nasa.gov/content/explore-the-night-sky-hubble-s-messier-catalog-bio 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210426.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090802.html 9. https://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4479 10. https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/event-view.cfm?Event_ID=117247 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211006.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 15. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 20. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=211007 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211008.html 22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 25. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 27. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 28. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 29. https://www.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 31. http://www.mtu.edu/