The stellar nursery of the Eagle Nebula (an emission nebula known as Messier 16) in Serpens, shown here centred on the “Pillars of Creation” that were famously imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The last image I posted of M16 was from just 40 minutes of exposure through each of narrowband Ha, OIII and SII filters, for 2 hours of integrated exposure. A couple weeks back I collected a further 4 hours of sequential 30 second light frames through the same narrowband filters - to yield 6 hours of integrated exposure over 3 nights since mid-July. The processed result is this significantly deeper image of the Eagle Nebula.

The brightest young stars located in the cluster above the pillars emit huge amounts of charged particles and UV radiation that sculpt out the gaseous nebula and have left the dense pillars of gas. These gas columns, which look like stalagmites emerging from a cavern floor, are incubators of new stars. Inside the columns astronomers have found knots of denser gas within which numerous stars (suns) are forming by gravitational collapse of the gas. Once formed, massive young stars in the nebula regulate the formation of lower-mass stars with their powerful winds, blowing gas and dust out of some areas while compressing it in others. As stars form, they are hidden inside their parent cocoons of dust that visible light cannot penetrate, but they emit infrared light that passes through the dust clouds and can be detected by infrared telescopes.



The longest column at centre left (inclined at 45 degrees to the right) is 91.7 trillion km long (9.7 light years). Cf distance from the earth to the sun of 8 light minutes. These are stupendously large structures.



The entire star cluster associated with the Eagle Nebula comprises some 8100 stars and whose age is around 1-2 million years. The entire nebula, which lies around 7000 light years away in the Sagittarius-Carina inner spiral arm of ‘our’ galaxy, stretches across an area of 55 x 70 light years and has the form of a soaring eagle, hence the name Eagle Nebula.



Skywatcher 8 inch f5 Newtonian telescope.

ZWO ASI1600mm Pro cooled astronomy camera.

Ha: 240 x 30 sec subs (Gain 250; Sensor Temp -20C).

OIII: 240 x 30 sec subs (Gain 250; Sensor Temp -20C).

SII: 240 x 30 sec subs (Gain 250; Sensor Temp -20C).

Total exposure 6 hours (unguided NEQPro6 tracking).

Imaged 17 July, 18 July, 28 August 2020 (Backyard; Bortle 4-5 sky).

Data processing: AstroPixel Processor, Lightroom, Topaz Denoise.