Date: Sept 11, 2009
Location: Pearson College, Victoria, BC, Canada

Also known as the Omega Nebula, this nebula is a rich star forming region in Sagittarius. Stellar winds and energy from hot, massive stars formed from M17's massive stock of cosmic gas and dust. The cavernous appearance and undulating shapes are what remains from this star forming process.

Equipment: Hutech-modified Canon XTi dSLR mounted prime focus on a Borg 101ED f/4 Astrograph mounted on an HEQ5.
Exposures: 27 x 1 minute at ISO 800
Conditions: Temperature 20°C, Humidity 55% (no dew). LVM 5.0, Transparency 5/5, Steadiness 5/5, clear skies

Processing:
ImagesPlus 3.75 - Auto-process - digital development from raw, dark & bias frame calibration, normalize, grading, alignment, average min/max exclude combine. Aggressive contrast stretch (BP 1000, Bkgd 293).
ACDSee Pro 2.5: colour cast correction, resize, reduce colour depth to 24 bit, save as jpg.