Take a dip in the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae on these September evenings. Before you head out the door after dark, be sure to grab your binoculars. Look in the south to southwest at nightfall and early evening to see the beautiful constellation Sagittarius just above the horizon. The famed Teapot asterism, part of Sagittarius, appears to be pouring tea from its spout towards the horizon. The Lagoon and Trifid nebulae are in this part of the sky.
Teapot of Sagittarius: In the direction of galaxy’s center
As you sweep around the area of the Teapot, you will come across several fuzzies or blobs of stars. There are lots of open clusters and star-forming nebulae to look at in the region, but we are on the hunt for two in particular. Now go to the spout of the Teapot. If you are in dark skies and can see the Milky Way streaming up from the horizon, you may notice a black area with two little fuzz balls in it that look like puffs of steam. If you are in suburbs or cities, you may notice just a fuzzy star above the spout. The fuzzy star or fuzz balls are the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae, or Messier Objects 8 and 20. You are seeing two star-forming regions toward the heart of our galaxy.
The Trifid is a little dimmer than the Lagoon. Trifid got its name because in photographs it has three distinct lobes. The Lagoon got its moniker because it looks like a round pool just outside the ocean of the Milky Way.
What’s really cool about the Lagoon is that you can see some of the stars that have formed from clouds of gas. You might not spot it with binoculars, but those with small telescopes may notice a small cluster of stars within the nebula. This cluster is known as NGC 6530.
Fastest sunsets of the year around equinox time
By late autumn and winter, these nebulae will drift out of the evening sky, so be sure to take a dip in the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae on this moonless September evening.
