Messier 16 (M16), also known as Eagle Nebula, is a spectacular HII emission region in the heart of the Milky Way.
The nebula is best known for the renowned image The Pillars of Creations from the Hubble Telescope, depicting the two gas star forming regions (“pillars”) expanding into the core of the nebula.
Despite the strong emission in the typical narrowband wavelengths (Ha, Oiii and Sii), imaging of the target was quite challenging due to the relatively low altitude and limited visibility from the observatory. The image is the result of total 9 hours integration in SHO “Hubble” palette.
High resolution here
Processing details
Pixinsight
- Calibration, weighting, alignment, integration (drizzle integration vark 1.5), crop
- Integer downsample x2
- LinearFit Sii and Oiii maters to Ha
L
- EzDecon
- EzDenoise
- HT stretch
- Exponential transformation
- EzStarReduction
- Blend core with HDR version
- LHE x2
SHO
- ChannelCombination
- HT stretch
- EzStarReduction
- LRGB combination with L
- Curves and masks for color adjustments
- EnhanceDarkStructures script
Photoshop
- Enhanced saturation and contrast
- Non linear noise reduction protecting stars
- various curves, contrast and color adjustments with masks
