The Swan Nebula (M17)
Click on image to see the core region
Description:
The
Swan Nebula M17, also called the Omega Nebula, the Horseshoe Nebula, or
(especially in the southern hemisphere) the Lobster Nebula, is a region
of star formation and shines by excited emission caused by the higher
energy radiation of young stars. What was particularly
interesting about this target was the core region. There's a lot
going on in there! This is one of my favorite objects to view in the
late summer southern sky with my 20" Obsession along with an OIII
filter inserted in my filter slide (made by Kurt Maurer). This
image has been cropped slightly for framing.
Photographic Details:
Date: September 20th
2006
Scope: Obsession 20” f/5 on a
Tom Osypowski Dual Axis Equatorial Platform, Orion 100mm f/6 Guidescope
Autoguider: SC1 Mod Celestron
Neximage Cam, Shoestring GPINT-PT guide port
interface adapter, and Guidemaster software.
Camera: Canon 20D DSLR (non-modded), homemade serial control shutter release
cable, and DSLRControl remote shutter software.
Filters: IDAS LPR Filter
Conditions: Temp 73F, Humidity 68%, Winds
Calm, Transparency 6/10, Seeing 7/10
Exposures: 32 x 60sec @ 1600 ISO Sub Frames, 15 x 60sec Darks
Post-processing: 3504x2336 Raw files converted to Lossless 16-bit FITS, calibrated, aligned, and combined
with ImagePlus. Slight wavelet filtering with Registax
3 as well as color balancing with histogram function. Final processing PhotoImpact Pro.
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