Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Serpens (Ser)  ·  Contains:  Eagle Nebula  ·  IC 4703  ·  LBN 67  ·  M 16  ·  NGC 6611  ·  Sh2-49  ·  Star Queen  ·  Star Queen nebula
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Messier 16: The Inside Story – From Ha, Alex Woronow

Messier 16: The Inside Story – From Ha

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Messier 16: The Inside Story – From Ha, Alex Woronow

Messier 16: The Inside Story – From Ha

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Description

Messier 16: The Inside Story – From Ha

OTA: CDK24” f/6.5
Camera: Moravian C3-61000 Pro, 2x2 binned at capture
Observatory: Heaven's Mirror, Chile

Exposures:
Ha 9 x 300"
Total Exposure time used: 45 minutes
Image Width: 21.2 arcminutes

Processing: PixInsight, Topaz Studio2, Luminar Neo, custom scripts for image weighting. 2x downsampled for presentation.

 A partial data set of only 45' of exposure drove my curiosity about the detail that could be revealed. As we know by now, our eyes and brain perceive the most significant detail in grayscale images. H-alpha is usually the carrier of that detail in emission nebulae. No surprise, Ha originates from energetic regions where turbulence, shock, temperature, and winds separate hydrogen protons from electrons, and when they reunite, Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, Bracket, and other wavelengths of emissions occur. Ha is a member of the Balmer Series, where a free electron, previously energized in a hydrogen atom, falls from the n=3 orbital into the n=2 orbital.

image.pngWikipedia

In a real way, Ha is showing us where the action is!

Alex Woronow

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Messier 16: The Inside Story – From Ha, Alex Woronow