M16 Eagle Nebula

M16 Eagle Nebula

The Eagle Nebula is a very luminous open cluster of stars surrounded by dust and gas. The three pillars at the center of the image, made famous in an image by the Hubble Space Telescope, are being sculpted by the intense radiation from the hot stars in the cluster.

Observatory: WIYN Observatory  Kitt Peak, Arizona
Telescope: WIYN 0.9-Meter
Instrument: Mosaic I  
Astronomer: T.A. Rector and B.A. Wolpa (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
Date of Observation: 06-15-2000
Filters and Assigned Colors: Oxygen [OIII] (blue), Hydrogen-Alpha (green) and Sulphur [SII] (red)
Exposure Times: 5x6 minutes in each filter
Location of Image: Serpens
Field of View: 40 x 40 arcminutes
Orientation: North is to the left and East is down
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