M17 Nebula, commonly referred to as the Omega or Swan Nebula is located approximately 5,500 light-years away from Earth in the Sagittarius constellationIt exhibits complex structures that are[color=var(--lighterGrey)] quite a challenging task to process.[/color]
[color=var(--lighterGrey)]This is my first attempt at this target. The core's brightness is pretty bright and needs careful attention during processing… very [/color][color=var(--lighterGrey)]easy to clip the highlights.[/color]
I have spent a fair amount of time just getting the initial stretch right. Equally tricky was getting the right colour transition between the nebula's emissions.
To be honest I really hesitated before doing this one because I have not seen that many images of M17 that I liked... it seems like an odd target to get right… so this was my little challenge... to try to get something that appealed to me. Overall, I think I got there, I can stare at this one without felling "funny" about it... that must be a good sign.
I went with a square crop in the end because it felt like it balanced the image a little better
Comments