Interesting Photo of the Day: The Trifid Nebula

Interesting Photos

If you want to peek at what’s hiding beyond our night sky, astrophotography is the medium for you. With the right equipment and skillset, you’d be surprised to see the kind of details you can extract from a simple phot. Take the following image taken by astrophotographer David Dayag of the Trifid nebula: it’s enough to make you seriously think of the awesomeness that lies beyond our planet.

“The Trifid Nebula” by David Dayag (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

Dayag shot this image with an 11-inch SCT telescope and the AWO ASI294MC camera for imaging, with a Celestron IHC filter and two guiding cameras, the ZWO OAG and ZWO ASI178MC. The final product is a composite of 29 images, each exposed for 64 seconds.

In literal terms, Trifid means “divided into three lobes,” and Dayag has done an excellent job of capturing the lobed structure of the nebula. The galactic body is a rare combination of three nebulae types that reveal the fury of freshly formed stars.  It also points to more star birth in the future. This is one of the reasons it is considered to be a peculiar subject and a favorite among amateur astrophotographers.

Artistically, what makes this image pleasing to look at is how the reds and the blues complement each other so well. Further, the dark masses of gases that create the lobes give an impression of a living being’s circulatory system—think of the heart, or the blood vessels in our eyes and retinas.

What do you think of this brilliant capture?