Messier 17, Swan Nebula, CDK24, CDK20

Messier 17, Swan Nebula A nearby star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this 1.5 degree wide field-of-view would span about 150 light-years. In this sharp image with 1 arc sec resolution, faint details of the region’s gas and dust clouds are highlighted with narrowband image data against a backdrop of central Milky Way stars. The stellar winds and energetic radiation from hot, massive stars already formed from M17’s stock of cosmic gas and dust have slowly carved away at the remaining interstellar material, producing the nebula’s cavernous appearance and the undulating shapes within. A popular stop on telescopic tours of the cosmos M17 is also known as the Omega or the Swan Nebula. This image is made using narrowband 3nm filters that capture emissions from Sulfur, Hydrogen and Oxygen gases.  These emissions are created because of ultraviolet light from nearby stars  excite the Sulfur, Hydrogen and Oxygen gases which then re radiate light at their characteristic wavelengths. The Red color comes from Sulfur emission at 672nm,  Green from Hydrogen emission at 656.5nm and the Blue from Oxygen emission at 500.7nm.  The image was primairily taken with a 24″ Planewave telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile with additional imaging to expand the field of view from my 20″ Planewave telescope located in Wilson WY.