Colors of the Scorpius

I have been waiting for quite some time to capture the Rho Ophiuchi region. Initially, I was only thinking about shooting a deep sky image, but after some successful nightscapes with my tele zoom lens, it was clear to me that I had to capture it with a nice looking foreground.

 

I finally got my chance during my latest stay in the Gantrisch region, where I have been able to capture this incredibly colorful region of sky rising behind a peak called Nuenenen. As the sky was not perfectly clear the brighter stars are sporting dreamy halos.

 

Rho Ophiuchi is the close pair in blue nebulosity near the center of the image. The star system, located only 400 light years away, is distinguished by its colorful surroundings, which include a red emission nebula around σ Scorpii (Alniyat) and numerous light and dark brown dust lanes. The yellow star below the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud system is Antares, while the distant but coincidently-superposed globular cluster M4, is visible between Antares and the red emission nebula.

 

Astro modified Canon EOS 6D

Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L

iOptron Skytracker

 

Sky:

20 x 60s @ ISO1600 stacked with fitswork4

 

Foreground:

3 x 60s @ ISO1600 stacked with PS

 

Thanks for all your faves and comments.

Done