New image: Wide field M16 Eagle Nebula Region in Ha
Category: Astronomy Images
Posted by: Tom How
My latest image is a wide field (aprox 3.5 degree) of the M16 region. This part of the sky is very hard to reach from my house, so it has taken two nights effort to produce this image.
M16 likes to hide behind hedges and tree and houses. I cannot image it before it reaches transit, and then I only get two hours on it before it hides behind the rooftops. However, the Eagle nebula makes up for its awkward location by its large brightness. This is a very bright object. Even imaging it at 20 degrees elevation I could see the central nebula clearly on 1 second 4x4 binning framing shots. Signal wise the central portion is a very easy target - if this object was in Cassiopeia or Cygnus then it would probably be up there with the North American in imaging popularity.
I used data from two nights to produce this image.
Click here for the full resolution image and details
I am quite pleased with the result considering how much muck I am shooting through. When your eye follows the line of the scope, all you can see is orange haze and not a single star. The power of narrowband filters to get a decent image out of terrible skies is always of constant wonder to me.
The Eagle Nebula is of course the target of one of the most famous Hubble images - the Pillars of Creation shot. Well, the pillars are in there, right in the middle - you can just make them out. The attraction of these features is probably the reason you don't see so many wide field shots of this region.
M16 likes to hide behind hedges and tree and houses. I cannot image it before it reaches transit, and then I only get two hours on it before it hides behind the rooftops. However, the Eagle nebula makes up for its awkward location by its large brightness. This is a very bright object. Even imaging it at 20 degrees elevation I could see the central nebula clearly on 1 second 4x4 binning framing shots. Signal wise the central portion is a very easy target - if this object was in Cassiopeia or Cygnus then it would probably be up there with the North American in imaging popularity.
I used data from two nights to produce this image.
Click here for the full resolution image and details
I am quite pleased with the result considering how much muck I am shooting through. When your eye follows the line of the scope, all you can see is orange haze and not a single star. The power of narrowband filters to get a decent image out of terrible skies is always of constant wonder to me.
The Eagle Nebula is of course the target of one of the most famous Hubble images - the Pillars of Creation shot. Well, the pillars are in there, right in the middle - you can just make them out. The attraction of these features is probably the reason you don't see so many wide field shots of this region.
