Mosaic of M16, M17 and NGC6604, by Christian van den Berge
See this image in high resolution
Image details
This image is a 3 panel mosaic of the famous Eagle Nebula (M16) and it’s neighbouring objects M17 and NGC6604. The image is a composite of Ha, OIII and RGB data in order to capture and show all the interesting features in this field of view. The image clearly shows the Ha ‘arc’ extending from M16 as well as the rich detail and features in M17 of all the movements in the materials of that nebula. Close to M17 you can see a few very thin OIII whisps that look strongly like a supernova remnant. I found out that there seems to be a Supernova Remnant behind M17, so this could be filaments belonging to that structure. It is called G16.05-0.57.
The HII region next to that however, seems to also be associated with a SNR, G015.1-01.6 so this could also be from that source
Above M17 we can see another emission nebula; IC4701. Furthermore there are many dark clouds and Ha features as well as star clusters in this fov.
It took 5 nights to acquire the 41.6 hours of data that went into this image. Data was shot in Namibia with DSLR cameras: Monochrome Nikon D600 and a modified D600.
Processing was also a real challenge to keep the balance between the overall image and the details, as well as combining the Ha and OIII data in such a way that the resulting image remains ‘natural’ looking.
More info and crops can be found at http://dslr-astrophotography.com/mosaic-m16-m17-m18-ngc6604/
About the photographer
Christian van den Berge
Location: Netherlands
Website, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr
Want in on the action? Submit your image today!
Add Comment