The photogenic M16 shown above is composed of a young star cluster associated with a spectacular emission nebula lined with clouds of interstellar dust. The gorgeous spectacle lies toward the galactic center region, some 7,000 light years distant in the constellation Serpens. Most of the stars in the cluster can be seen offset just above and to the right of the photograph's center. This type of star cluster is called an "open" or "galactic" cluster and typically has a few hundred young bright members. The redness of the surrounding emission nebula gas is caused by electrons recombining with hydrogen nuclei, while the dark regions are dust lanes that absorb light from background sources. The dust absorbs so much light it allows astronomers to determine which stars are inside the nebula and which are in the foreground. Stars are forming within the nebula. (Narrative Credit: NASA; APOD, January 18, 1997)

Dates:
June 22 and 23, 2009
Location:
Ft. Griffin State Historic Site, Texas
Telescope:
Astro-Tech 6" Ritchey-Chretien at f/9 1370mm focal length
Mount:
Takahashi EM-11 Temma 2, guided by an SBIG ST-237 thru an E-finder at 100mm focal length
Camera:
Canon XSi, at prime focus; modified by Hap Griffin with the Baader filter
Camera Control and Focusing:
ImagesPlus 3.60 (IP)
Exposures:
78 at 5 minutes each; all at ISO 800 in Raw mode
Total Exposure time:
6 hours 30 minutes
Processing:
Converted, calibrated, de-bayered, normalized, aligned and MinMax combined
using Automatic Image Set Processing and deconvolution in IP.
Final processing in Photoshop CS2

To see largest size available, click on "Original" below

To see a close-up of the nebula, click "Next"