Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Serpens (Ser)  ·  Contains:  Eagle Nebula  ·  IC 4703  ·  M 16  ·  NGC 6611  ·  Star Queen
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The low flying Eagle - M16, urban.astronomer
The low flying Eagle - M16
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The low flying Eagle - M16

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The low flying Eagle - M16, urban.astronomer
The low flying Eagle - M16
Powered byPixInsight

The low flying Eagle - M16

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Description

Astrophotography text books usually don't recommend imaging below 30 degrees. M16 is thus not exactly an easy target when imaging from 60 deg north, hovering less than 10 degrees over the horizon, and not even accesible at the highest point as the sun is too close. From my city location, only a small time window lasting some 60-90 minutes on late August nights (and perhaps also in March) is sort of acceptable for imaging, so I have captured a couple of frames now and then over the last three years when the seeing was good. A good night session would typically provide 3 useful frames as I had to throw away 70% of the frames due to air turbulence, unstable guiding, roof tops, church spires, etc. 

When the eagle disappeared in the west for the season, I counted 30 not-directly-bad frames, providing 5 hrs integration in total. It is not the sharpest of images, but I still feel quite proud of delivering this southern hemisphere beauty from a very sub-optimal location.

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The low flying Eagle - M16, urban.astronomer