July Challenge Object - M20 (Trifid Nebula)

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all.

We'd love you to take part in the July Observing Challenge. Please post your observing reports and sketches for M20 in this thread. Discussions about the object can also be in this thread.

Please ensure scanned sketches obey the image posting guidelines when you attach them.

For deep-space images of the object, see the "Deep Space" astrophotography forum.

[dhumpie]

Another easy one as it lies just north of the naked eye nebula M8 the lagoon nebula at the sprout of the teapot. Its not as bright or as showy as the lagoon with its very prominent dark lane, but the trifid has a subtle beauty to its own. Its dark lanes are easy with averted vision and I have seen them in my old 76mm f/9. They are definately present in the Orion 80ST. I find the best views at medium powers to "concentrate" its light so the lanes show better. Overall it looks like an open flower when seen from the top. Nebular filters such as the Lumicon UHC (and my old Orion Skyglow) enhances the views quite well. The trifid also has a bluish reflection component to its north and this is enhanced much better by the Skyglow filter than the UHC which kills its nebulosity. The lanes are easy with direct vision in the 6". I once had the privelage of looking at the trifid through Kevin's 16" and it almost looked like a photograph (well minus the red's but it appeared a very strong green!)! You could drive a dump truck through the lanes. It is also visible as a smudge in 10x50 binoculars. See my sketch at:

http://www.geocities.com/dhumpie/dastro/m20.jpg

Darren

[Soldant]

A slightly-difficult object to detect from my light polluted skies, but a facinating object in my 6". With the use of adverted vision and unusually darker skies, I managed to glimpse the brighter part of the nebula, and could just detect the dark dust lanes around the brighter centre. The Trifid delighted me in its subtle detail, especially with the dark dust lanes. Easy to locate thanks to the prominant star grouping near the intersection point of the dark dust lanes and its proximity to The Lagoon. I could not detect any of the reflection nebula, nor was much of the nebulosity visible in my 10x50 binoculars.

[dhumpie]

Excellent report Soldant. Keep the reports and observations coming in...

Darren