M16 - The Eagle Nebula June 08

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Any image of M16 seems like a bit of an anticlimax following the release of the spectacular "Pillars of Creation" by the Hubble Space Telescope team! There is so much going on in the core of this emission nebula which is an area of intense star formation. Dark dust lanes make up the shape of the "eagle" which is actually upside dwon in this image. It lies in the constellation of Serpens 6 500 light years away.

Scope: Skywatcher ED120 with William Optics 0.8 reducer/flattener.

Camera: QSI 532ws with Astronomik 13nm Ha filter and type II RGB.

Exposure details: Ha 11x500 secs and RGB 40:40:60 secs binned x2.

Captured and combined in Maxim and processed in Photoshop.

This proved quite a tricky target with the NABG QSI since the stars in the central cluster started to bloom early restricting exposure time.