If you get a clear night during the summer, go to a dark location, and look south. You’ll be looking straight toward the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, our very own “Island Universe.” Looking in that direction, there are so many goodies strewn about through the dust lanes. The Lagoon Nebula is just one of these little gems. It’s a cluster of stars in the midst of some ionized gases and a star forming region.

In this photo, you can see “clouds” of stars toward the center of the Milky Way. The areas that look like there are fewer stars are really places where lanes of dust are blocking the light from those distant stars. Also in this picture, you’ll see the Trifid Nebula in the top half. The reddish bit is more of an emission nebula, while the bluish is more a reflection nebula.

This picture was captured in dark skies near Durango, Colorado while I was on vacation. I captured this image using an unmodified mirrorless camera (Sony A7II). Being a stock camera, it includes an infrared filter which blocks nearly 75% of the light emitted from hydrogen-rich regions. However, under such dark skies, this nebula is visible thanks to its bright cluster “powering” the emissions.