This is the famous M16, nicknamed the Eagle Nebula, located 7000 light years away in the constellation of Serpens at a declination of -14 degrees. It consists of a central star cluster (NGC 6611) and a surrounding emission nebula (IC 4703).
A close-up image of the central region taken with my longer focal length setup is shown
here.
The large star cluster at the heart of the Eagle contains approximately 8000 stars and is the source for the ionization of the surrounding gas clouds. The darker areas of dense gas are believed to be the sites of new star formation. Two such areas include the "Pillars of Creation", at the center of the image, and the "Stellar Spire" above and left of the pillars.
The Pillars of Creation formation was made famous in a 1995 Hubble telescope photo and has become the most recognizable Hubble image. The pillars are being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed. The small dark areas in the image are believed to be protostars (Bok globules), containing dense cosmic dust and gas from which star formation may take place. The Stellar Spire is about 10 light-years tall, with numerous gracefully sculpted cloud shapes at its head.
This is my favorite object and the first DSO object to take my breath away when I saw the first Ha sub of the central pillars long ago. I love how the fantastic pillars are located at the very heart of the eagle, and the highlighting blue colors of that region.
Among the numerous objects outside of the central region, I like the open star cluster (Trumpler 32) above and right of the Eagle “Head”, and also the unnamed 2 short straight dust lanes at the center bottom edge of the image.
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