The Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, and NGC 6611) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745–46. The "Eagle" (or the "Star Queen" as coined by Robert Burnham, Jr.) refers to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the center of the nebula; an area made famous as the "Pillars of Creation", imaged in 1995 by Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen at the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the "Pillars".

The Eagle Nebula is part of a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is catalogued as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 7000 light-years distant.

The cluster associated with the nebula has approx. 8100 stars, which are mostly concentrated in a gap in the molecular cloud to the north-west of the Pillars. The brightest star (HD 168076) is a binary star with mass of roughly 80 solar masses, and luminosity up to 1 million times the Sun. The cluster's age has been estimated to be 1–2 million years.

The famous Hubble photograph, the "Pillars of Creation", depicts a large region of star formation. The small dark areas in the photograph are believed to be protostars (Bok globules). The columns, resembling stalagmites protruding from the floor of a cavern, are composed of interstellar hydrogen gas and dust, which act as incubators for new stars.

Evidence from the Spitzer Telescope suggests that the pillars in M16 may already have been destroyed by a supernova explosion. Hot gas observed in 2007 suggests that the area was disturbed by an exploding supernova some 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. But the light showing us the destruction will not reach the Earth for another millennium. [Source: Wikipedia].

CAPTURE Information:

The image was captured with the new iOptron CEM120 mount , the venerable Meade 12"LX200 SCT, and my Atik 383L+ m CCD at F7.16 (2182mm FL). Astronomik's Ha narrow band, and R, G and B broad band filters were used. Imaging subs were taken at 1x1 bin, -10C, and 10 min. (Ha), and 5 min. (R, G and B).

IMAGE information -- 2018:

Ha: 69 subs (11.50hr) on Jun 24th, 25th, 26th and Aug 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th .

Red: 11 subs (0.92hr) on Aug 4th.

Green: 10 subs (0.83hr) on Aug 4th

Blue: 10 subs (0.83hr) on Aug 4th

Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th, 2013. Ha filter was used for the Lum image. R, G and B were collected for the color mix. The detail and color came out nicely. North is up (pretty sure), and this is a slight crop due to the misalignment accumulation from the different filters and times.

COMMENTS:

While not the first light with the iOptron mount, it is certainly the first I'm really happy about. Note there is a time gap in the imaging. This occurred because the mount initially had a noticeable periodic RA excursion, every 4 minutes just like clockwork. The mount went back to iOptron in Massachusetts after June 26 and had its RA worm gear package replaced. It was returned just prior to the August 3rd imaging and all appears to have been corrected. So far I'm pleased.