Terence Galuszka Astrophotography

The giant gas pillars made so famous by the Hubble space telescope image. M16, also known as the Eagle Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Serpens.

This image reveals giant pillars of interstellar gas and dust that are home to stellar nurseries of young stars, that light up the nebula. Although difficult to make out with the naked eye from city skies, it becomes clearly visible under rural skies with a pair of binoculars.

Visual observation of M16 easy under clear skies.  The red circles on the location chart below indicate its position. If you find the stars in the tail of Scorpius, then make your way down past the teapot (Sagittarius) you'll find a nebulae just off to the edge of the milkyway.

This was my first image of M16 and only my second astrophoto. I hope you enjoy it.

Charts showing stars of of Sagittarius. 

Table of the brightest stars in Sagittarius. m is the apparent visual magnitude and spectral type.

 Technical Details

 Date

26 July 2008

 Location

 Wellington New Zealand

 Optics

Celestron C11 OTA @ F10

 Mount

Celestron CGE

 Camera

Orion Deep Space color Imager II

 Filters

N/A

 Exposure

5x5 minute exposures, unguided.

 Acquisition

Celestron Nexremote

 Processing

MaxIm DL EE and Photoshop CS3