M17 Swan/Omega Nebula - The swan-song of a low flying bird
Following my successful attempt at catching a low flying eagle (see my post:
M16, the Eagle Nebula), I wanted to test the limits and see if I could catch anything flying even lower above the horizon. With the high trees in the South, the high hedge trying to hide me from the blaring LED light of the back-door neighbour, the long summer sunset before astronomical darkness sets in, M17 going from 20 degrees to as low as 17 degrees (living at 51 degrees latitude), barely an hour of data to be captured each night … but, as a novice wildlife-photographer, I’ve caught my swan …
M17, called the Omega or Swan Nebula, is considered one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy. Its local geometry is similar to the
Orion Nebula except that it is viewed edge-on rather than face-on. It is between 5,000 and 6,000
light-years from
Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of
interstellar matter of which this
nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses. The total
mass of the Omega Nebula is an estimated 800
solar masses.
TS94, ASI2600MC, EQ6R-Pro
L-Enhance 38x 180s = 1:54
20220729-20220818
I’ve framed this slightly off-center, trying to make sure I have enough overlap with my previous image of the eagle nebula. With a bit of luck, this opens up the possibility of making a 2-panel mosaic of M16-M17 … Stay tuned …
Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭
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