The large, bright moon Titan sits due north of Saturn this morning. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The young star cluster NGC 6523 lies just to the east of this dust lane, while the 6th-magnitude star 9 Sagittarii lies to its west. You may notice varying shades to its gray coloring, as well as a dark dust lane running through the nebula’s middle. The Lagoon spans some 45′ by 30′, or slightly larger than the Full Moon, and several details become discernible with a telescope. Its is just brighter than magnitude 5, rendering it visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch of light under particularly good conditions. M8 is a bright emission nebula associated with a young cluster of forming stars, similar to the more famous Orion Nebula (M42). You’ll find it rising in the southeast about an hour before local midnight, though if you’re not opposed to staying up rather late, feel free to give it time to gain some height in the sky. It sits some 5.5° west of magnitude 2.8 Kaus Borealis (Lambda Sagittarii). Also cataloged as M8, the Lagoon is located in northwestern Sagittarius. EDT, leaving a perfectly dark sky overhead for us to seek out fainter targets like the Lagoon Nebula. The Moon reaches its New phase at 11:53 A.M. This true-color image shows off the stunning Lagoon Nebula (M8), taken with a Celestron 8-inch scope.
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