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The Eagle Nebula, as Messier 8 is also known, is a remarkable object for many reasons, and not only for its popularity. This is a very active star-forming region. In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope took a series of images that helped significantly to understand this process. The popular image “The Pillars of Creation” (the central “three finger-like” region of the nebula) was one of the first narrowband image processed with the so called “Hubble Color Palette” that was made public. This image triggered a whole amateur movement to image nebulae with narrowband filters. M16 is an emission nebula, containing an open cluster that fuels it. This cluster is very young, only about 5 million years old.
Additional Information
Object
Name(s): M 16, NGC 6611, The Eagle Nebula, Star Queen Nebula
Type: Emission Nebula
RA: 18h 18m 47s
Dec: -13º 46’ 54.7”
Constellation: Serpens
Size (arcmin): 35×28
Magnitude: +6.4
Distance: 7,000 ly
Image
Date: 2013-07-30
Location: Corbera de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia
Size (arcmin): 37×28
Telescope: Celestron 11” HD f/10
Camera: FLI ML6303 (3072x2048pix)
Guiding: Orion SSAG/Nikkor 500mm f/8
Total exposure: 97 min (L: 40min; RGB: 57min)
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CC 2016