Eagle Nebula
(Messier 16)
This huge area of gas and dust, around three moon widths long, is close to the central core of the Milky Way as we see it from Earth. Despite over 35 hours of integrated exposures, it has been really hard to process. The difficulty lies in the high dynamic range because the Eagle has a super bright core surrounded by an extremely faint outer region. This cliff-edge drop-off in brightness needs bringing under control and smoothing. I think I must have spent almost another 35 hours processing it.
I spent so long putting this image together there were times when when I really didn’t like it. Compare it, for example, to the impactful, photogenic nature of the Horsehead and Flame nebulas or the Rosette. But this did get awarded ‘Top Pick’ on the Astrobin website, so at least it seems to be a good version of The Eagle.
Total exposure: 35hrs 58mins
SII 168 x 300, Ha 146 x 300, OIII 111 x 300
RGB filters for stars: 30x20 for each filter.
Texas telescope: ZWO FF107
Pillars of Creation
In 1995 the multi billion dollar Hubble Space telescope turned towards the star forming central part of the Eagle Nebula and took what became one of the most iconic and celebrated pictures of interstellar space. My focal length is too short to do proper justice to the Pillars, but here is my view of that region with Hubble’s image below it.
