Every star you see in the night sky forms from a nebula, which is a large region of dust and gas in space. One such nebula, the Lagoon Nebula, is visible with binoculars or small telescopes and is best seen in August. Here’s what it is and how to find it.
The Lagoon Nebula is a stellar nursery, a region in space where new stars are constantly being formed. Located around 4,000 light years away, this nebula sits near the constellation Sagittarius and can be seen in the night sky right now.
Vast amounts of gas and dust exist here, slowly congesting into groups as gravity pulls on it. Over time, these groups collapse under their own gravity, heating up the material at the center. This is how new stars are formed.
Vast amounts of dust and gas are seen in this image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Various stars, many times brighter than our sun, light up this dust and gas. Image provided by NASA, ESA, and STScI.NASA
In the Lagoon Nebula, there are many different young stars glowing bright, lighting up the gas and dust surrounding them. To amateur astronomers observing this feature with binoculars or telescopes, the nebula will appear as a faint, colorless glow in the sky. Still, being able to observe a region where stars (like our own Sun) form, even from suburban skies, is quite cool.
To find the Lagoon Nebula, locate the constellation Sagittarius and the famous “teapot” structure in the southern sky. Moving west in the sky, follow a line connecting the top of the teapot’s “handle” to the top of the “lid”, each marked with a star. Travel this same distance and in the same direction and you’ll arrive at the nebula. NASA has different sky charts to help visualize where to look to locate the this feature.
Observing on a night with little to no moonlight will offer better views, as well as observing in locations far away from city lights. While faint, the size of the Lagoon Nebula spans an area in the sky nearly three times the size of a full moon, so locating it should be fairly easy.