This complex of bright red emission, blue reflection, and dark nebulae is located in Sagittarius one degree east-northeast of M8, and is part of the same molecular cloud as the Lagoon Nebula complex.

Hold your mouse cursor over the image to see object identifications.

The area is 45 arcminutes in diameter and is located 5,000 light-years away, the same distance as the Lagoon Nebula.

NGC 6559 is the brightest section of red nebulosity at the lower right. Dark nebula B303 is just to the upper left of NGC 6559. B91 is a large dark nebula to the left of center. Cr 367 is a large open cluster also involved in the complex. IC 1274 is a circular red HII region at left center with a rim of blue reflection nebulosity on its southern edge.

NGC 6559 was discovered by John Herschel in 1826.

North is to the left in the above image.

NGC 6559 Catalogs: NGC 6559 Area Object Type: Nebula Complex Area Size: 69.57' x 46.30' Constellation: Sagittarius Image Field Centered At: RA: 18h 09m 42s Dec: -23° 51' 16"