http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2012/01/hubble_still_unbeatable.php

including this one :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSZb_PUkeB0

journeying into the star-forming region Sharpless 2-106.

There’s also more like those such as this one :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA9YO_iK6G8&feature=relmfu

taking y’all into the Carina nebula “pillars” to enjoy.

Note too that stars may be forming at the centre of the darkest clumps – like the truncated triangle and octopus shaped black patch on the upper right hand side – but yet those stars may be completely cloaked by the dense surrounding dust and gas.

They could well be Bok globules – click on my name for article via Universe Today or search online for ‘Journey Inside A Bok Globule’ by Tammy Plotner posted on February 2, 2009.

What would the night sky look like to someone living in that nebula? Would it be as light as the picture?

Almost certainly not methinks.

Why because I’m pretty sure this is a long exposure image adn this means the light literally builds up and isn’t what you’d see with the unaided eye if you were to look up from inside Messier 17 itself.

If you were there, well the sky would certainly be different although I’m not sure exactly how different and it would also deped on exactly where you were and what else was in or near your location. (Eg. if you were in a system with other planets,comets and asteroids you’d see those – how well and as what depending on how close you were to them.)

Very few – if any – of the familar stars in our night sky would be visible – & the stars that might be visible from there (Deneb, Rigel, Eta Carinae -the brighter & more distant cosmic lighthouses we see) would be in very different constellation patterns to ours.

Interesting enough because this is a star forming region with young stars, I would expect you could have several really massive, hot and bright O & B type stars nearby which would shine incredibly bright in yoru M17~ean sky. Think of the light of the crescent moon or even half full moon coming from a single star-like point in your sky. Plus several stars that appear as bright as Venus and Jupiter do in our sky but unlike them remain in the same spot relative to the other stars.

The dust and gas composing the nebula would probably obscure your view reducing the number and luminosity of the stars that were present. OTOH, you could probably pick out with the unaided eye, some of this surrounding nebulosity you are emneshed in there just as we can see the Orion nebula (Messier 42 & 43) from Earth as a “fuzzy star” in the handle of the saucepan / sword of Orion. However, given the anatomy of the human eye you probably -& I may be mistaken here but probably – couldn’t detect any colour to that nebulosity like we can in this image.

What you may get is may dark patches – obscuring dark nebula like those EE Barnard catalogued all across your sky with grey, fuzzy misty clouds of reflection nebula that – with long exposure astrophotography would be breathtakingly magnificent and cover apapparently vast areas of sky. You may well see fewer but brighter stars and as for planets, comets and asteroids well, that would depend where youwere and what was nearby.

So, it could be very interesting indeed and I’d love to have an FTL starship and go look. Alas we’llhave to settle for now for imagination and space art.

I’d suggest the Super -Uber-Mega-Astronomical-Telescope as being the peak of possible superlative observatory acronynms!

Great picture – and clever title here, cheers BA!

*****

PS. Wikipedia page for Messier 17 aka the Omega Nebula, Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, Lobster Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula linked to my name here.