Trifid Nebula M20
02-Aug-2025
A swirl of stellar creation, the Trifid Nebula (M20) reveals its dual personality here: rose-pink hydrogen emission framed by the cool, silvery glow of reflected starlight. Dark dust lanes slice the central cloud into three, giving the nebula its name and lending a dramatic floral symmetry.
This image blends broadband with hydrogen-alpha data, isolating the nebula's ionised hydrogen to accentuate the crimson filaments and the newborn stars energising them. Set against a star-rich Sagittarius backdrop roughly 5,000 light-years away, the Trifid's contrasting hues and tangled tendrils showcase the delicate balance between chaos and beauty that defines a stellar nursery.
Image:
- 117x 180s Luminance
- 35x 180s Red
- 35x 180s Green
- 33x 180s Blue
- 77x 300s 6nm H-α
Total integration 17.5 hours. Focal length: 840mm
Hardware:
- Skywatcher Esprit 120
- Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
- ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
- Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
- Astronomik Luminance and 6nm H-α filters
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser
Location:
- Exposed over 3 nights between 27th July to 29th July 2025
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
- Captured with TheSkyX Professional
- Guiding with PHD2
- PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, LRGB combination, noise reduction, spectrophotometric flux calibration, multiscale gradient correction, background neutralisation, spectrophotometric colour calibration, histogram, curves.