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The middle of this image (the Pillars of Creation) is probably THE most iconic deep sky image ever done as it was released by Hubble a few years ago. To that end, how on earth is one supposed to compete with Hubble?
The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula and The Spire) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745-46. Both the "Eagle" and the "Star Queen" refer to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the centre of the nebula, an area made famous as the "Pillars of Creation" photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the Pillars of Creation.
This region of active current star formation is about 7000 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometres long.
This is 22 hours of total exposure time, with each individual exposure being 30 minutes long.
M16 - The Pillars of creation in bi colour by Sara Wager, on Flickr
You can see more information about the image and a larger version on my website http://www.swagastro.com/m16.html
The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula and The Spire) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745-46. Both the "Eagle" and the "Star Queen" refer to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the centre of the nebula, an area made famous as the "Pillars of Creation" photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the Pillars of Creation.
This region of active current star formation is about 7000 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometres long.
This is 22 hours of total exposure time, with each individual exposure being 30 minutes long.
M16 - The Pillars of creation in bi colour by Sara Wager, on Flickr
You can see more information about the image and a larger version on my website http://www.swagastro.com/m16.html