Photo of the Week for September 11, 2015
The summer Milky Way is a rich and rewarding stretch of sky for visual observers and astrophotographers alike. The most densely packed region is the 20-degree swath that extends northeast from the spout of the Sagittarius Teapot. Lying in the thick of this cloud of celestial steam is M17, also known as the Swan Nebula. The Swan is the brightest part of a larger nebulosity complex, and appears to swim upside down in the photo above.
This fine, detailed portrait was captured by Rémi Lacasse at his home observatory in Saint-Faustin–Lac-Carré, Quebec, on the nights of August 8 and 9, 2015. He used a SBIG STX-16803 CCD camera attached to a RC Optical System 12.5-inch Ritchey-Chrétien telescope to acquire a total of 4.2 hours of image data accumulated through five different filters.
