M 17, the “Omega Nebula” – Sgr

M 17

M 17

The region of Scorpius and Sagittarius is one of the richest places in the sky. Plenty of wonderful treasures there, with some of the most remarkable deep sky objects we know. The diffuse nebula Messier 17 is, for sure,  one of them. It is a wide star forming region, often called  Omega Nebula, Swan or Horseshoe Nebula. Stars forming there are not so apparent in visible light, mainly hidden in the nebula.

Messier 17 was discovered in 1745-1746 by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux and is about 5.000 light years from us.

The image above comes from the average of 15, 120-seconds unfiltered exposures, remotely taking using the PlaneWave 17″ robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope. All images were unguided and were taken with a bright moon in the sky.

 

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