Jeff Schilling of Kingwood, Texas

The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is filled with glowing gas as well as dense dark clouds called Bok globules, where material is collapsing to form stars. The largest such globule in this image appears to be a hand pointing into the center of the Lagoon. The imager took nearly 15 hours of data on Hubble's palette with a 5-inch refractor.