M16, the Eagle Nebula

M16, the Eagle Nebula. M16 is a diffuse emission nebula in the constellation Serpens, in the Milky Way to our south in the summer months.

There is a cluster of stars at the center of the image. These stars are producing a solar wind, strong enough to blow the cloud of hydrogen and dust away from the cluster. Also in the image are finger like structures of dust and gas pointing towards the central star cluster. Embedded in these columns of gas and dust are newly formed stars. The gravitational pull from these stars resist the force of the solar wind thus forming these column/finger like structurers.

Image processed by Andrew Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile

Telescope: Planewave CDK24

Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches), f/6.5

Focal Length: 3962 mm

Camera: QHY 600M Pro CMOS

Filters: RGB

Total Exposure: 5 hours 46 min.

Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (RC Astro);

Adobe Photoshop 25.12.4;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 15.0.1

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.