Infrared imaging of the M8 hourglass

M8 is a well-observed emission nebula containing a high-surface brightness H II region, the Hourglass, toward which numerous compact infrared sources have been detected. The location and colors of these sources may offer insight into the morphology and dynamics of star formation in the M8 region. This paper present high spatial resolution (∼0″.38 pixel^-1), multiwavelength infrared broadband images of the M8 Hourglass which were obtained in order to search for compact embedded sources and to identify their spectral type. The infrared color magnitudes of two of the sources detected in our observations are consistent with the colors of early B stars, while a third source may be a pre-main-sequence object.