These images look surprisingly different. At first, they look different mostly in the their color. Looking a bit more closely, you might see differences in the structure of the nebula and in the level of detail. The images are different because they were made using various telescopes, cameras, filters and imaging technology. One of them was made using color photographic film (Kodak Ektachrome), the others were produced from digital images recorded using electronic detectors (CCDs). The digital color images were reconstructed from separate black and white images made through different color filters (more details about this). The images shown here are all at the same scale and orientation. Some of them do not show as much of the nebula as others because the telescope and cameras see different amounts of the sky.

Even images made using the same telescope can be wildly different. Most of the differences come about because different filters were used to produce each image, selecting different colors in the light from the nebula. Some filters isolate light in a very small range of colors (narrow wavelength band) from specific chemical elements (hydrogen or sulfur, for example). Other filters sample a broader range of colors (broad wavelength band). In reconstructing a color image, the exposures from each filter were assigned color in various ways. In some cases, the images show light that we cannot see with our eyes. Infrared light is redder than the reddest light we can see, but instruments can record this light.

This table shows more details for each image:

Image	Telescope	Filters, Colors
	KPNO 4m	Kodak Ektachrome color film
	VLT 8.2m	Ha 656nm  Red [O III] 501nm  Green B 429nm  Blue
	WIYN 3.5m	1.02mm (IR)  Red [S III] 953nm  Green Ha 656nm  Blue
	WIYN 3.5m	Ha 656nm  Red [O III] 501nm  Green [O II] 373nm  Blue
	WIYN 3.5m	Ha 656nm  Red [O III] 501nm  Green O I 630nm  Blue
	HST WFPC2	[S II] 673nm  [N II] 658nm  Red Ha 656nm  Green [O III] 501nm  Blue