The Omega Nebula (Messier 17) and the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16) can be seen in this four degrees wide picture. Both are emission nebulae glowing because of ionized hydrogen gas which is emitting red light at 656 nm and also a small amount of blue light at 486 nm. Triple ionized oxygen (OIII) is also glowing at 500 nm (blue-green or teal color). Many Milky Way stars are also present. Fainter red nebulosity can be seen surrounding both bright nebulae.

This image was obtained from Hortezuela de Ocen, 150 Km away from Madrid light pollution, on July 2016.

Technical details.

Takahashi FSQ106N scope on a Losmandy G11 mount, using a SBIG STL11000 camera with Baader LRGB filters.

Exposures: 12x10 minutes binned 1x1 through Luminance filter, and 6x5 minutes binned 2x2 through Red, Green and Blue filters.

Processing software: Excalibrator, PixInsight and Photoshop.

Click on the image to see a higher resolution 2600x1726 size version