M-20 (NGC-6514) commonly called "The Trifid Nebula" due to the three dark dust lanes that trisect it, it located in the constellation of Sagittarius. M-20 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764 and was added to his catalog as number 20. It lies 5,200 light years from Earth and is 40 light years in diameter. It is an unusual combination of a cluster of stars surrounded by a hydrogen emission nebula (the red portion), a reflection nebula (the bluish-white portion) and trisected by the dark nebula Barnard 85 (the three dark lanes). Also visible in this image is the fine open star cluster M-21, at the upper right hand corner of the image.
This image, acquired on Augst 17, 2020, is a 40 minute integration of 4 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2 using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.