The Lagoon Nebula is visible to the naked eye as a small bright patch above the large Sagittarius star cluster in the Milky Way but is a beautiful sight in any size telescope
It was named for the dark lane that runs through the centre of the nebula just to the west of the open cluster, NGC 6530. The nebula is recognised as an active stellar nursery and is about 5000 light years distant in the direction of the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and spans about 30 light years.
Its image can be processed to reveal a range of filaments of glowing Hydrogen Gas and dark dust clouds along with a brighter turbulent region at the upper right.
Small dark knots which are condensing protosteller clouds can be seen sprinkled throughout the nebula.
Discovered by Hodierna before 1654 and independently found by Flamsteed about 1680, the nebula was catalogued by Charles Messier as M8.

This image was taken on 2nd June 2010 with a Canon 40D and Stellarview 102ED at F /5.6.....10 x 5 minutes @ ISO 1600 were obtained in Nebulosity. Images were calibrated and stacked and final processing done in Photoshop.

Above article researched by Astronomer Dave Robinson.... 2010