NGC 6960 - Western Veil Nebula (h-alpha + LRGB composite image)
NGC 6960 - Western Veil Nebula (h-alpha)
“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 a famous photograph by the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows pillars of star-forming gas and dust within the nebula.” [wikipedia.org]
My geographic location makes imaging of this object quite difficult. Let me present my attempt – the picture was taken at the mountainside during my recent holiday. The atmospheric diffraction affected the source frames significantly making it really difficult to stack and process. The image is basically 7×1200s in H-alpha + some color frames using bin 3×3 settings. I guess it is worth it to go at least a couple of hundreds kilometers south to get bettter results.
Date: 2009.08.20
Object: Messier 33
Conditions: dark sky, mountainside, no moon
Exposure (monochrome image)
- 7×1200s H-alpha
Exposure (color image)
- L: 7×1200s H-alpha
- R: 5×300s bin3
- G: 5×300s bin3
- B: 5×300s bin3