M17, the Swan or Omega nebula, is a fairly bright Messier object in northern hemisphere summer skies, and it's easily visible to the naked eye under dark skies. The brightest parts of the nebula show the distinctive "omega" shape, but longer CCD exposures show a much larger and more complex field of nebulosity. This image was taken with a 12.5" PlaneWave telescope and a QSI-640ws camera from a dark sky site near Anza, CA. Hydrogen-alpha exposures were combined with the usual LRGB filters to create a composite image. Total integration time was 7.1 hours.