The Swan Nebula

Object: Messier 17, NGC 6618

Type: Bright Nebula

Distance: 4890 light years
Constellation: Sagittarius
Date: 04 August 2007
Equipment: SXV-H9, Vixen ED114 refractor (f.l. 600mm)
Subframes: 40 x 100s full frame in H alpha, 16 darks, 16 flats/flat darks, calibrated and stacked in AIP4Win.

This was one of those rare nights when everything went perfectly. The polar alignment appeared to be spot on at the first attempt and the sky stayed crystal clear with a steady atmosphere for the hours around midnight that it took to acquire the frames.

Even though this object never gets much more than about 20º above my southern horizon and the summer sky wasn't truly dark, this effort turned out to be one of my best ever and one of the few that I felt was worthy of a large scale print.

I think it holds up pretty well against deeper images produced by masters such as Johannes Schedler, shown here.