M17 the graceful swan (Tom Gray)

M17 the graceful swan

M17 is magnificent visually, in a dark sky or with a light pollution filter, and stunning in a hydrogen alpha line filter. M17 lies 5,500 LY from us in the rich star fields of Sagittarius, amidst a cluster of bright young stars.

The swan glides effortlessly across the waters, with the true extent of the turbulence beneath the surface only revealed in longer exposure images. Am I over imagining things if I see some cygnets in the swan’s wake, or perhaps an osprey perched in its eyrie with an enormous fish?

I prefer to think of the swan, graceful but strong, fiercely loyal, caring for her family. I dedicate this image to my wife who puts up with my night-time obsessions, with such good grace, and always puts her family first.

Original
B
Final
D

B

Description: A monochrome version which shows off the ripples and folds in this complex nebula. Colour is lovely but sometimes distracts us from exploring the detail, and given our rods are more sensitive, monochrome may better represent what we actually see.

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: The 'golden' swan - processed in Startools v1.6, with I think better use of contrast and HDR brightening. The colour constancy varies enormously, depending on which star is sampled, but I quite liked this golden version - definitely art not science. I used the life module to highlight the swan from it's reflection in this pool of nebulosity.

Uploaded: ...

Optolong L-eNhance filter
Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) Imagers
The OSC Club (One Shot Camera)
Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
UK Astro-Imaging

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3656692
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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