My latest process of the Eagle Nebula using data from Grand Mesa Observatory’s system 1 the Takahashi FSQ 130 (available on our subscriptions) using a QHY367C full frame One Shot Color CMOS camera with Chroma Narrowband Filters. In this Hubble Palette version the H-Alpha is mapped to green, SII is mapped to red and OIII is mapped to the blue channel. I also used the naturally colored stars from the RGB data. While the colors in this image are not the true colors, the narrowband filters used in the making of this Hubble Palette image reveal much more of the hidden gasses not visible in a broadband image.

Captured over 4 nights in July and August 2019 for a total acquisition time of 14.3 hours.

For comparison here is one of my earlier processes of The Eagle (32 hours of data) using Colin Cooper’s data www.flickr.com/photos/terryhancock/21726752834/in/datepos...

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

July 22, 29, 30, Aug 2nd 2019

RGB 320 min 32 x 600 sec

HA 195 min 13 x 900 sec

OIII 165 min 11 x 900 sec

SII 180 min 12 x 900 sec

Narrowband Filters by Chroma "5nm"

Camera: QHY367C

Gain 2850, Offset 76 with Dark Frames no Flat.

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6

Pre Processing in Pixinsight

Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Starnet (star removal)

The incandescence of the Eagle Nebula is laced with intricate dark lanes, globules, and huge clouds of dust which shroud ongoing star formation from direct view. The most prominent dark structures are the so-called “Pillars of Creation”, three long fingers of gas and dark dust nearly ten light years long. The Pillars are a field laboratory for the study of star formation and have been examined intensely by astronomers at visible, infrared, and ultraviolet wavelengths. Within the Pillars are much smaller, warmer, and denser regions called evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs), some of which contain just a few solar masses. The EGGs are ground zero for star formation, though it’s difficult to catch these new stars in the act of igniting because they remain obscured by cloaks of dark dust. EGGs located near bright stars are elongated by winds of light and charged particles into what look like schools of celestial tadpoles.

The stars within the Eagle Nebula appear to be in an intermediate state. Stars within the Pillars and other dusty regions remain obscured, while a cluster of some 400 new stars clearly appears in a more transparent section of the nebula. The largest of these stars has a mass some 80 times that of our Sun and the luminosity of perhaps a million Suns. The cluster formed just 2 to 5 million years ago. The nebula itself is only slightly older.

The light we see from the Eagle Nebula and its associated stars left some 7,000 years ago, but some astronomers suspect the Pillars of Creation may have already been obliterated when a massive young star within the nebula detonated as a supernova. The Spitzer Space Telescope detected evidence of a patch of hot gas near the Pillars which may have been caused by such an event about 8,000 years ago. Information from our e-book The Armchair cosmicpursuits.com/astronomy-courses-and-e-books/armchair...