"Nice Stars but Dangerous" - the late Joe Roberts - 1928-2001

The Omega, Horseshoe or Swan Nebula - Messier 17. The PIRATE telescope -narrow band filters - Hydrogen Alpha -pasted into the red channel, Oxygen pasted into the green channel and Sulphur pasted into the blue channel - 1x3 minute exposure. - Credit: the Autonomous Telescope- telescope.org - Open University.

Alternative colour rendering - Sulphur -pasted into the red channel, Hydrogen Alpha pasted into the green channel and Oxygen pasted into the blue channel

" The Omega Nebula - Messier 17 can be found in the constellation Sagittarius. Because of its low declination it barely rises above the Jodrell Plank Observatory's southern horizon. The above narrow band image was taken using the PIRATE robotic telescope on Mount Teide- Teneriffe.

Image taken with a Canon 400D DSLR in Provence des Montagnes - 2015 - Pip Stakkert.  M17 can be seen top left in the band of the Milky Way

 

The nebula is approximately 5,000 to 6,000 light-years from our Solar System and  spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of gas and dust, of which this nebula is a part, is about 40 light-years in diameter with a mass of 30,000 solar masses. The total mass of the Omega Nebula is thought to be 800 solar masses.

The nebula, one of the brightest and massive star-forming regions in our galaxy, is similar to the Orion Nebula. Unlike the Orion Nebula we do not view it face on but instead see it edge on. Embedded hot young blue stars are ionising the gas in the nebula causing it to shine."
Kurt Thrust - current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.