The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula (catalogued as Messier 17 or M17) is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is located in the rich starfields of the Sagittarius area of the Milky Way.

The Omega Nebula is between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years from Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of interstellar matter of which this nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses. The total mass of the Omega Nebula is an estimated 800 solar masses.

It is considered one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy. Its local geometry is similar to the Orion Nebula except that it is viewed edge-on rather than face-on.

The open cluster NGC 6618 lies embedded in the nebulosity and causes the gases of the nebula to shine due to radiation from these hot, young stars; however, the actual number of stars in the nebula is much higher - up to 800, plus over a thousand stars in formation on its outer regions. It is also one of the youngest clusters known, with an age of just 1 million years. The Swan portion of M17, is said to resemble a barber’s pole.   [Source: Wikipedia]

Capture Information:
The image was captured with the iOptron CEM120 mount, the venerable Meade 12"LX200 SCT OTA, and my QHYCCD QHY294m Pro mono CMOS camera at F7.16 (2182mm FL). 
Astronomik's Ha narrow band, and Red, Green and Blue broad band filters were used.

Image Information -- 2023
RED :  10 subs (0.83hr) on Aug 7th.
GRN :  10 subs (0.83hr) on Aug 7th.BLU :   10 subs (0.83hr) on Aug 7th.
Ha   :   65 subs (5.42hr) on Aug 6th, 7th and 8th.
All exposures were at 5 minutes (300s) each, 1600 gain, 56 offset, 1x1 bin and -10C (more like -5C).

Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) Kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th from several years back.
However, Ha was used to develop the Luminance image. R, G and B were collected for the color mix.
Somewhat of note is I used Hartmut’s “Game” script within Pixinsight to create two stars that I could not get to model in PI’s star mask process.  I then added Hartmut’s mask to the star mask and got the desidered results.
North is to the right (pretty sure), and this is a slight crop due to the misalignment accumulation from so many different filters and times. 

Comments:
While the plan is to create all subs at -10C, I'm finding that the summer heat is only allowing the temp to reach around -5C.

This is the 4th time I’ve run at this target.  
The first was in August of 2011 with my Meade 12”LX200 fork mount, using the Canon XSi Mod DSLR. 
The second was in August of 2015 with my Meade 12”LX200 fork mount, using the Atik 383L+mono CCD camera.
The third was in September of 2017 with my Celestron CGE Pro, using the Atik 383L+mono CCD camera.
This time we’re on the iOptron CEM120 mount, using the QHY294 pro mono cmos camera. 
Each has its own charm.

I had to send the Micro Touch Autofocuser controller into Starizona for USB replacement prior to this image capture.  This is the second time that item has been replaced.

ONE LAST THING:
Following my last image (M101 Pinwheel w/ super nova) in late June (or early July) of 2023, I decided to take another look at the RA drive system (stepper motor and belt).
1.  Several bolts holding some structural members of the mount were loose.  These were from the side I had entered when I had previously adjusted the belt tension.  When re-assembling, I made certain these bolts were tightened.  This certainly gave me hope that the RA behavior was at least in part due to them.
2. I found some “gunk” on the motor and worm sprockets which I removed.
3. I noted the motor sprocket is likely press fit onto the shaft and does not use a set screw. 

Unfortunately, the RA excursions persist, so the fix was not in.