Trifid Nebula
A glowing cloud split in three by dark lanes of dust, with a blue reflection nebula beside it.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Kind of object
- Cloud of glowing gas (nebula)
- Distance
- 5,200 light years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.3, a sight for binoculars
- Size in the sky
- About as wide as the full Moon
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Catalogue
- M 20, NGC 6514
Figures from OpenNGC, CC BY-SA 4.0; the SEDS Messier catalogue, via Wikipedia’s table of Messier objects, CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- Lagoon NebulaA nebula in Sagittarius, right beside it, a finger’s width away.
- Small Sagittarius Star CloudA star cloud in Sagittarius, about three fingers away.
- Sagittarius ClusterA globular cluster in Sagittarius, about a fist away.
- Omega NebulaA nebula in Sagittarius, about a fist away.
- Eagle NebulaA nebula in Serpens, about a fist away.