M17 the Swan Nebula

[rbrecher]

I don't shoot many "showpiece objects" these days, opting instead for dimmer targets. I also don't often shoot to the south, where my sky is impacted by the Guelph auto mall just a few km away.

 

But hold the phone! I just found an entire, untapped 6-degree (in dec) strip of southern sky that is full of showpiece objects and accessible to me. For years, I thought that my practical southern limit for this time of year was the Eagle Nebula.  But last week when my intended target was clouded out, I checked to see what I could reasonable get in the south and uncovered a whole new area of sky containing things like the Swan, Triffid and Saturn nebulae, as well as a bunch of nice globulars, open clusters and dark nebulae. I'm like a kid in a candy store.

 

I hope you enjoy this image as much as I enjoyed (a) finding I could get the Swan at all ( acquiring the data between tree branches and observatory walls and © processing it.

 

http://astrodoc.ca/m17/

 

Clear skies,
Ron