                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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

                        NGC 6559: East of the Lagoon
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Sartori

   Explanation: Slide your telescope just east of the Lagoon Nebula to
   find this 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 Charles
   Messier's famous catalog of bright nebulae and star clusters. 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 NGC 6559 at
   right. Like M8, NGC 6559 is located about 5,000 light-years away along
   the edge of a large molecular cloud. 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: Saturday, October 9
                 Tomorrow's picture: when stars play guitars
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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