Sagittarius Triplet (M 8, M 20, Sharpless 29)

The Trifid Nebula (M20) and the Lagoon Nebula (M8) are located in the Milky Way in the direction of the galactic center. Nevertheless, they are only 5,200 and 4,100 light-years away, respectively. The surroundings of these two famous nebulae are filled with many interesting objects. The yellowish-glowing globular clusters NGC 6544 and NGC 6553, south of M20, are more distant objects located in the neighboring Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm, about 10,000 or 20,000 light years away. The open cluster M21 is also in the field, as well as the faint HII region Sharpless 22 to the southwest of M8. Sharpless 29 is located on the other side of M8. The so-called Psychedelic Nebula is about 5,500 light-years away and contains the star formation region NGC 6559.