The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745-46. Its name derives from its shape which is resemblant of an eagle. It is the subject of the famous "Pillars of Creation" photograph by the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows pillars of star-forming gas and dust within the nebula.

It is part of a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is catalogued as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 6,500 light-years distant. The tower of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula is approximately 100 trillion km (60 trillion miles) high. (Wikipedia)

This image was taken through a Hydrogen Alpha filter (H-alpha (Hα) is a specific red visible spectral line created by hydrogen with a wavelength of 656.28 nm, which occurs when a hydrogen electron falls from its third to second lowest energy level. It is difficult for humans to see H-alpha at night, but due to the abundance of hydrogen in space, H-alpha is often the brightest wavelength of visible light in stellar astronomy.) This is a combination of only 2 12 minute exposures, much more would be good, but I ran out of time. Will add more later this summer.

Details:
Date: July 2, 2011
Camera: SBIG ST8300M w/Baader 7nm H-Alpha filter
Telescope: William Optics FLT 110 @f5.6
Mount: Celestron CGE
Processing: CCDStack & Photoshop CS3