The Lagoon nebula (also known as M8 in astronomy notation), is a giant emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered in 1654 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna. He used a rudimentary Galilean-type telescope with about 20x magnification to identify it. The nebula lies about 4,000–6,000 light-years from Earth, spanning 110 by 50 light-years, and contains the young open cluster NGC 6530. While pink in long-exposure photos, it appears grey to the naked eye due to low-light colour sensitivity.

The photo on the left is slightly processed while the photo on the right is unprocessed. 494 photos were taken 10-second exposure over 1.5 hours. I used a H-alpha filter to enhance the quality. In astronomy, H-alpha filters isolate narrow wavelength to capture the faint hydrogen emission from interstellar gas , blocking out most other light, which improves contrast and allows observers to see fine details like solar prominences, flares, and features in nebulae that would otherwise be invisible in broader light.