The Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16 (M16), is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens. Located about 7,000 light-years from Earth, this region is famous for its towering pillars of gas and dust, which are the birthplace of new stars. These iconic structures, known as the "Pillars of Creation," were famously imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope and are one of the most recognized features in the universe.

This amateur photo of the Eagle Nebula captures the ethereal beauty and intricate details of the region, showcasing the vibrant colors and delicate structures of the gas and dust clouds. While it may not achieve the same level of resolution and depth as the Hubble version, this image still provides a stunning view of the nebula's majesty. The amateur capture highlights the accessibility of astrophotography to enthusiasts and the ability to contribute meaningful observations, even in comparison to professional space telescopes.

Image Description and Details :

I aimed to recreate the Iconic Hubble Space Telescope image Pillars of Creation. It was my first project I did at such a long focal length (Celestron C11 EdgeHD - 2800mm) and the struggle was real... :) I took my telescope to a semi-dark site for a weekend for the first tests. I knew it would take me about three nights to take this image, calculating a night's worth of shots per color (using filters for Hydrogen, Sulfur and Oxygen). I threw away the images from the entire first night (5 minute shots) as the guiding was not able to keep the stars small enough. I spent three more nights taking 1-minute subs for the final image, many of which also had to be discarded unfortunately. I ended up using a total of 175 minutes of Hydrogen, 192 minutes of Sulfur and 104 minutes of Oxygen. Celestron C11 EdgeHD Rainbow Astro RST-135, RST-300 ZWO ASI 1600MM 06-07.2022

Copyright: The Space Koala / Luca Bartek

Image Description and Details :

This is a Narrowband image of the iconic M16, NGC 6611, using the Sulphur, Hydrogen, Oxygen (SHO) Hubble Palette convention.
Central to the image are the “Pillars of Creation” as detailed in the famous Hubble Space Telescope image.
The result was very different to my previous work with M20 and I have to say, much easier to get an aesthetically pleasing result.I firstly removed the magenta hue. The blue and gold colours were there from the outset but I enhanced these whilst subduing the green. Overall the result is, I think, in keeping with other reference images that use the Hubble palette.
I used Starnet and then Photoshop, using Kevin Morefield's process to end up with a high quality starless image. From there I was able to apply a number of processes such as HDRMT, LHE, and Unsharp Masking, with judicious use of denoising as well as Curves Transformation to improve the sharpness, definition and contrast, evolving the colours to the classic Hubble palette appearance.
I initially added back the SHO stars, dealing with the usual pink halos, but subsequently reprocessed my RGB data to add back the RGB stars. This gave a more natural and colourful appearance to the stars, which integrated very well. I subdued the stars with Morphological Transformation coming to what I think is a nice balance.
Data capture: 2021-08-13 to 2021-09-09
OTA: C14 EdgeHD
Mount: MX+
Camera: SBIG 16803
Filters: Astronomik 50mm unmounted
Lights: 25.5 hours of integration
Ha: 17 x 1800 secs
OIII: 17 x 1800 secs
SII: 17 x 1800 secs
Bias: 35
Darks: 35
Flats 20 per colour channel per camera change
RA/Dec Coordinates
RA 18h18m45.96s
Dec -13°47'55.59"

Copyright: Niall MacNeill

Image Description and Details : Pillars of Creation, zooming into M16 Nebula.
Astrophotography taken with this equipment:
Imaging telescope: Sky-Watcher Espirit 150 ED
Imaging cameras: QHYCCD QHY 16200A
Mounts: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh PRO
Software: PHD2 PHD 2 · Photoshop CC PS · Main Sequence Software Seqence Generator Pro · Pixinsight
Filters: Antlia 3.0nm SII PRO · Antlia 3.0nm OIII PRO · Antlia 3.0nm Ha PRO

Frames:
Antlia 3.0nm Ha PRO: 26x900" (6h 30') bin 1x1
Antlia 3.0nm OIII PRO: 24x900" (6h) bin 1x1
Antlia 3.0nm SII PRO: 20x900" (5h) bin 1x1

Total Integration Time: 20 hours

Copyright: Christian Hilbertj

M16 from Àger, Lleida. 14 hours in total. 84 x300s Ha 40 x300s OIII 32 x300s SII 30 x60s R, G i B. TS81 telescope camera QHY183M processed at Pixinsight

Copyright: Enric Vinyoles Nicolau

Image Description and Details :

Imaged in my backyard in Córdoba City, Argentina, under skies bortle 9.
Main equipment: ZWO ASI 1600 mm-pro + SW Explorer 250pds + SW Coma Corrector 0.9x + EQ6-R-Pro + ZWO EAF + ZWO 7x2" EFW
Guide Equipment: starguider 60/240 mm, ZWO ASI 120mm mini
*Gain 139, -25 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 85x180"
*Gain 139, -25 º C, Oiii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 80x180"
*Gain 139, -25 º C, Sii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 80x180"
100 Darks
100 Flats per filter
Polar Align: SharpCap 3.2
Acquisition: SGP 3.1
Processing: Pixinsight 1.8.8, PS

Copyright: Ariel L. Cappelletti

Image Description and Details :

- Celestron C11hd at 2800 mm focal length

- main imager zwo Asi6200mm pro

- guiding Zwo OAG and zwo asi290 mono

- filter astronomik 6nm SHO 30x300s each for a total of 7,5H hours of integration time.

This picture was taken from Mougins, in the south-east of France

Copyright Information: Georges ATTARD