M-17 (NGC-6618) Also known as the Swan Nebula, is an H-II emission nebula located in the constellation of Sagittarius. It was discovered by Phillipe Loys de Cheseaux in 1745. Charles Messier cataloged it in 1764. It is near some of the richest starfields in the Milky Way. It lies approximately 5,000 light years from Earth, and is over 15 light years in diameter. It is one of the brightest and most massive star forming regions in our galaxy. The nebula shines due to radiation from the hot, young stars imbedded within the cloud of ionized hydrogen.
This image was acquired on the evening of August 8, 2024, and is an integration of 70 two minute exposures through the C-11 at f/6.3 using the Starizona .63X Reducer/Corrector and the ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro CMOS camera operating at -5 degrees below ambient and binned 1 X 1. Acquired, guided and captured using N.I.N.A. Post-processed using PixInsight, WBPP, Dynamic Background Extraction, Background Neutralization, Spectrophotometric Color Calibration, Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch and NoiseXTerminator. Finished up in PhotoShop and converted to JPEG format by NoiseWare.