This is bonkers, just bonkers! I can remember seeing the first images from the Hubble then the James Webb telescopes of the Pillars of Creation and being awestruck by them. That something so beautiful is just hanging out up there, not getting the proper admiration that such spectacles deserve. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be able to photograph it myself, never. Back then, I simply thought it was too technical or the equipment was unaffordable. Guess I was wrong.  :)

Here you get to see my early stages of shooting the night sky, and YES! The Pillars of Creation (or at least how they looked around 6500 years ago because that's how long it took for that light to reach me)! Albeit nothing like the JWT or Hubble, but I'm thrilled nonetheless. This is an image taken with ny little telescope in a dark sky site Bortle 2 area, with approximately 27 minutes of imaging time, each image being a 10-second exposure for around 155 useable images stacked together. The only processing I did was to remove the stars using RC Astros StarXTerminator program (they were VERY distracting to me), and to do some minor adjustments to light and noise in photoshop. After I play with editing these more, I'll add stars back in to a more tolerable level and share that version with you as well. Ideally, I would take the multiple nights of additional imaging time and stack these all together for a sharper image, but this was so cool to me, I couldn't resist sharing this version right away. 

Bonkers.

The Pillars of Creation are found within the Eagle Nebula (M16), one of many nebulae and clusters and gasses that make up our stunning Milky Way. At the very same moments of imaging the nebula, I also photographed the entire Milky Way so I could pinpoint for you where the nebula is within the Milky Way.  To put it into context, the light from this area took between 5,700 and 7,000 light-years to reach my telescope camera. That's how far away it is.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I am. You know I love to hear from you so sharing and comments are always welcome. Click on the images to see larger version and to see more in my Galleries.

Pillars of Creation Milky Way with Lagoon Nebula Circled