I was quite amazed at the level of detail in this so I decided to post a crop of just M17.
We currently have very bleak conditions here in western michigan with snowfall expected tonight, the only chance I will have of shooting more of M17 this year is if I sell my house and most of my equipment and move back to Australia, get myself a portable mount and go live in the
Outback .....ahhh I'm tempted!!
Captured on the 1st October 2012 under a full moon in Hydrogen-Alpha. Shot at native resolution (F5.5)
Total Exposure time 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Date of Shoot 1st October 2012
All exposures unbinned
H-Alpha 3nm 8 x 20 min
QHY9M monochrome CCD cooled to -30C
www.astrofactors.comThomas M. Back TMB 92SS F5.5 APO Refractor
Paramount GT-1100S German Equatorial Mount (with MKS 4000)
Image Aquisition Maxim DL
Stacking and Calibrating: CCDStack
Registration of images in Registar
Post Processing Photoshop CS5
Clear Skies
Terry
Down Under Observatory on FacebookDown Under ObservatoryYouTube5000 light-years distant, toward the consellation Sagittarius, lies the spectacular Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan. The nebula istelf spans an incredible 40 light-years and contains a whopping 30,000 solar-masses worth of hydrogen gas and dust. The gasses are being compressed under both gravity and the pressure from stellar radiation of newly born stars, and will continue birthing new stars as the hydrogen becomes hot and dense enough to undergo nuclear fusion.
M17 is one of the most prolific of known stellar nurseries. Already having birthed 800 or more stars in the last million years, it will continue creating stars for the next several million years. When the last remnants of gas have either been used up in the formation of stars or swept away by the intense radiation from these new stars, it will leave behind a dense cluster of thousands of hot, bright stars.
Description written by
Adam Stirek
Comments