Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula / Pillars of Creation - 2019 Version
Date: August 19, 2019
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0005
Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula, showing the “Pillars of Creation” as captured by my William Optics 132mm platform and a OSC camera. (click to enlarge)
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About the Target
M16, known most commonly as the Eagle Nebula, is also known as the Star Queen Nebula and the Spire. This is a rich open cluster of about 8100 stars surrounded by a rich region of gas and dust. Located towards the south during the summer season, M16 can be seen in the constellation Serpens and is located about 5100 light-years away. This area has been made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope classic image: The Pillars of Creation in 1995.
The Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Map for Serpens - Messier 16 indicated with the yellow arrow.
About the Project
My journey into Astrophotography continues..... I figured out how to optimize the polar alignment of the telescope mount using a Polemaster camera, how to do automated tracking with a guide scope and camera, and how to program a capture series with full Flats, Darks, and Bias calibration frames. Progress! Still, a huge amount of technique to sort out and polish. With this next iteration, I have the full system integrated and working. The scope now becomes a robotic camera that runs for hours - while I can monitor it remotely from inside the house while it does my bidding.
The first image is of Messier 16, "The Eagle Nebula". I was shooting to get 30 ninety-second exposures of this guy but the night was running late and after twelve images it passed out of sight thanks to some trees!
More Information
Wikipedia Entry: Messier 16
NASA: Hubble Space Telescope image of “The Pillars of Creation”
Capture Details
Lights Frames
12 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, Gain Unity
Total of 0.3 hours
Cal Frames
not recorded.
Capture Hardware
Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO refractor
Guide Scope: Televue 76mm Doublet
Camera: ZWO AS2600mm-pro with ZWO 7x36 Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Mount: IOptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Software
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second-guessing, editor regret and much swearing…..
I was still learning to use the main rig, when I soon made my first modification. I was doing the Polar Alignment the old fashioned way - using an illuminated polar scope. This caused me to kneel down on the driveway and look up through the polar axis. This was killing my knees, my back and my neck! I hated it and I was sure I was not getting very good alignments with it…..