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M16 Eagle Nebula

Featured in the Sky At Night October Edition

 

This is M16 captured from ICAstronomy in Oria, Spain.

The image was captured using narrowband filters (Ha, OII, SII).

Also in the image is the famous Pillars of Creation.

 

Ha 10x1800 Secs

OIII 7x1800 Secs

SII 9x1800 Secs

 

13 Hours in total.

 

The Eagle Nebula is part of a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is cataloged as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 7000 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula in the northeastern part is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometers long.

 

The cluster associated with the nebula has approximately 8100 stars, which are mostly concentrated in a gap in the molecular cloud to the north-west of the Pillars. The brightest star (HD 168076) has an apparent magnitude of +8.24, easily visible with good binoculars. It is actually a binary star formed of an O3.5V star plus an O7.5V companion. This star has a mass of roughly 80 solar masses and a luminosity up to 1 million times that of the Sun. The cluster's age has been estimated to be 1–2 million years.

 

The descriptive names reflect impressions of the shape of the central pillar rising from the southeast into the central luminous area. The name "Star Queen Nebula" was introduced by Robert Burnham, Jr., reflecting his characterization of the central pillar as the Star Queen shown in silhouette.

 

 

Equipment used:

 

Telescope: Tec 140 F7

 

Camera: Xpress Trius SX-694 Mono Cooled to -15C

 

Image Scale: 0.95

 

Guiding: OAG

 

Filters: Astronomik Ha 6nm, OIII 6nm, SII 6nm

 

Mount: iOptron CEM60 "Standard" GOTO Centre Balanced Equatorial Mount

 

Image Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro

 

Stacking and Calibrating: Pixinsight

 

Processing: Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CC

 

 

 

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Uploaded on July 17, 2019
Taken on January 9, 2021