M17 - Swan Nebula

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SBIG ST-4K, 900s total exposure 9/22/17 Whisper Canyon, CA


This is a new image of M17 taken with the ST-4K camera. Although the image is not quite as sharp as the previous image obtained with the Starshoot camera, it covers a much larger area and shows fainter features. The ST-4K camera also shows the hydrogen-alpha emission (red features) more brightly relative to dust (blue-white features).





M17 - Swan Nebula

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Starshoot DSCI, 50 exposures, 10s each 9/26/08 Lake San Antonio, CA


This was one of the easier targets, because it is bright and just the right size to fit into the camera's field of view. You can see the "swan" if you rotate by 180 degrees. Note the interesting dark clouds near the top edge, and the red and blue patches close to each other a little bit above the brightest star near the center. There seems to be a little bit of tracking error or something, judging by the elongated star images.