Telescope/Mount: Celestron Compustar C14 with 0.75x focal reducer (f/8). Camera: SBIG STL 11000M. Filters: Baader Planetarium LRGB. Exposures: LRGB=78:36:36:36 minutes=3hours:06minutes total exposure. Six minute sub-exposures. Self-guided. Location: Pommier Observatory, Portland, OR, USA. Dates: 2011-07-04 through 2011-07-07.
M16, the Eagle Nebula in Serpens Cauda, lies 7000 light years from Earth, which places it in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way galaxy. It is a region of intense star formation. Stars are forming within dark columns of dust, such as the "Pillars of Creation" seen at the center and made famous by the image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The longest pillar is about 6 light-years in length. Another star forming column is known as "The Spire", which looks like a column poised on a pedestal. It is oriented horizontally and lies to the upper left of the Pillars of Creation in this image. The Spire is about 9 light-years long. This image was challenging to capture, as subexposures had to be obtained intermittently as the nebula appeared and disappeared between trees along my southern horizon.