M17 lies some 4900 light years away at the constellation of Sagittarius.
It's a region of star formation and shines because of the high-energy radiation of young stars ("young" compared with the cosmic time scale!).
Under ideal conditions (no light pollution) M17 is barely visible as a faint star.
Details:
Takahashi FSQ-106
Takahashi EM200
Canon 350D Baader modified, Hutech IDAS LPS
30 x 122 sec lights , ISO 1600 (23 darks frames, 20 bias frames)
FOV=99.4% of the original frame
Autoguiding with PHD, Toucam 740 , Celestron ED80
Alignment, calibration, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, final processing with PS3 and PixInsight LE
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