I took a pre-dawn drive through rural Will County (south of Chicago) this morning. Lots of great old barns and so many stars. After desperately seeking rural illumination, when the sun finally rose, it felt like an embarrassment of riches, in terms of light and color.
Now it’s time to show y’all the complete photograph of the M16 nebula taken last week with my 80 mm refractor telescope. Could manage to get lots of details in a relatively short total exposure time of only 9 hours and 45 minutes.
Dust, ionized oxygen, sulfur and hydrogen, stars in the making, bok globules, protoplanetary disks, Herbig-Haro objects, immense light-year distances… Ladies and gentlemen: yes the Pillars of Creation @ M 16 taken with an 8 cm aperture refractor.