By the way, this is my latest image I took on 8/24/2009 of the Eagle Nebula M16. At about 7000 light years distance from earth. The famous Hubble shot of the pillars of creation, are at the center of this image. Not quite Hubble though.
The dark pillar-like structures (center) are actually columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust where new stars are forming. Although you can see the pillars in this image, you're seeing the nebula as it looked approximately 7,000 years ago.
The height of the tallest pillar is approximately 24 trillion miles high (4 light years).
This was 44-95 second exposures at ISO-800, aligned, calibrated and combined, taken from my small backyard observatory.
I was actually quite pleased with this shot, and surprised the data processed out as well as it did.
