M16, the Eagle Nebula, is a large, bright emission nebula in the heart of the 'summer' Milky Way in the constellation Serpens. It was discovered in 1745-46 by Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux. M16 is the home of the so-called 'Pillars of Creation', a dense region of gas and dust that is in the process of creating new stars while simultaneously being eroded away by solar winds from nearby, recently formed stars.

Data for this image was acquired between May 5 and May 9 at Rusty's RV Ranch located in the 'boot heel' region of New Mexico near the town of Rodeo. The early mornings of May 7th, 8th and 9th were calm and clear. This was the first time that I used purely CCD data to image M16, and just the second time that I employed N.I.N.A. to remotely manage my gear and imaging sessions. Autofocusing was performed frequently - usually every 3 to 5 subs.

I was curious to see how my 'Pillars' compared with some better known images. So just for fun, I cropped the region, cranked up the contrast, and show it here (L) alongside images by the Hubble (M) and Webb (R) telescopes.

I brought in the Ha data in Hb(ish) tones instead of the traditional red color just to do it differently. I stayed with red for the dominant background nebulosity.

The field of view used to acquire the image is shown in the Imaging Details box. The image at topis reduced in size (to roughly 25% scale). Clicking the image above will open up a larger, version.

Imaging Details
Imaging Dates	May 5-9, 2024
Imaging Location	Rusty's RV (+31.9, -109.0)
Constellation	Serpens Cauda
Imaging Telescope	Stellarvue 115 fluorite triplet
Imaging Camera	Atik 460EX
Imaging Filter(s)	L, R, Ha, G, B
Exposures	L - 120 sec; R,G,B - 180 sec, Ha - 300 sec
Guiding	50mm f/4 guide scope, 2x Barlow, Lodestar X2, PhD Guiding
Image Processing	Sub alignment and initial stretches were performed using Nebulosity; Photoshop CS5 was used to process the stacked subs. Topaz DeNoise AI was used to reduce noise and sharpen the image.