The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens,
The Eagle Nebula is a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is catalogued as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 5700 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula in the northeastern part is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometers long.
The cluster associated with the nebula has approximately 8100 stars, which are mostly concentrated in a gap in the molecular cloud to the north-west of the Pillars. The brightest star (HD 168076) has an apparent magnitude of +8.24, easily visible with good binoculars. It is actually a binary star formed of an O3.5V star plus an O7.5V companion.[8] This star has a mass of roughly 80 solar masses, and a luminosity up to 1 million times that of the Sun. The cluster's age has been estimated to be 1–2 million years.
| Object | M16 Eagle Nebula |
| Constellation: | Serpens |
| Position: | RA 18h 18m 45s / Dec -13° 47' 31" |
| Apparent Size: | 70 x 50 arcmins |
| Apparent Magnitude: | 6.4 |
| Distance in light years: | 5700 ly |
| Photo Data | |
| Date: | 10./11./12./14.06.2023 |
| Location: |
El Sauce Observatory Chile (2500m ASL) GPS: 47°36’13“ N, 10°11’24“ E |
| Telescope: | CHI-1-CMOS: Planewave CDK24 610 mm, f/d 6.5/3962mm |
| Camera: | QHY 600M Pro, 3.76μm, 9576 x 6382px, Bin-2 4788x3191px, @ T sensor = -15°C |
| Field of View: | 31x21 arcmins |
| Pixel Scale/Resolution: | 0.19 arcsec/px |
| Expose frames/times: | S 16x300s, H 19x300s, O 18x300s |
| Total expose: | 5h 0min |
| Filter: | Astrodon SII, Ha, OIII |
| Mount: | Mathis MI-1000/1250 with absolute encoders |
| Software: | Siril 1.4, Photoshop CC |
| Remarks: |
© 2025 Peter Cerveny