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Scope: C8 at f/3.3, Location: Laguna Mountains, CA 19 May, 2007, Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 8 x 360 sec H-Alpha (1x1), 6 x 120 sec RGB Exposures (2x2).
Processing: Images were captured with Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 4 and saved as FITS. H-Alpha and Color channels were scaled and color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. Curves and Levels applied in Photoshop to optimize object features. Luminance construction consisted of the H-Alpha exposure. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB) - PixInsight SGBNR noise reduction was lightly applied to the background . Selective sharpening was applied to nebula features in Photoshop with a layer mask. Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.
North is up in this image. This is the well known "Eagle Nebula" cataloged as IC 4703 and also known as M16 and as NGC 6611. The latter being the actual star cluster somewhat central in the image with IC 4703 the emission nebula itself. It is located in the constellation of Serpens Cauda. These objects lie about 7,000 light years distant from Earth. This image replaces an earlier image of this region and can be seen in the Archives here. The Horizontal FOV is 46'.
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 18h 18m 56s Dec: -13°48'31"