I spent a number of nights this spring at this unique area of Arizona, which seems to be increasingly popular (at least compared to my first visit here, just a bit over two years ago). One one night (a clear night after a long string of cloudy nights with generally poor conditions) about 45 photographers were camped out in the parking lot. 45!

As you can imagine, the shooting conditions that night were challenging, with photographers of all experience levels wandering a relatively small area with all manner of flashlights, spotlights, and LED panels. I personally was forced from several areas as bright lights meandered their way in the dark toward me, and I slinked away to find another composition. The photo's title is partly an allusion to the other folks (like me) who were playing a strange game of hide-and-seek that night, setting up their gear in the dark and hoping that the bright-flashlight folks would give them a solid 5 minutes of respite from their bright beams.

This is a 2-row panorama of 4 photos per row, all taken back to back (no blending or compositing funny business, as is this case with all of my panoramas).

No, the nifty fifty is not astro glass (as you can see by peeping in the corners) but the Rho complex is gorgeous regardless.

1 stack of 50 images, Canon 800D at ISO 800, Canon 50mm f1.8 STM lens at f2.8, 60s exposures, Omegon Minitrack Lx2. 50 darks, 120 biases. Processing in comments.

IC 4604 (Rho Ophiuchi Nebula) is a large diffuse nebula of 5th magnitude located in the southwestern corner of the constellation Ophiuchus, surrounding the bright triple star Rho Ophiuchi. Several regions of bright and dark nebulosity surround this area, which takes its name from ρ Oph.

Highlighted by the bright star Antares, the region provides an impressive spectacle of colorful glowing gases, juxtaposed with converging dark rivers of thick dust. Other areas of nebulosity within the region include IC 4603, centered around the star SAO 184376; and IC 4605, around 22 Scorpii. The nebulosity around Antares itself (α Sco) is designated IC 4606. Dark nebulae Barnard 45 and Barnard 42 separate the reflection nebulosity near ρ Oph (IC 4603 and IC 4604) from the nebulosity closer to 22 Sco and Antares (IC 4605 and IC 4606). Barnard 44 lies to the east.

At a distance of some 540 light-years, IC 4604 is one of the nearest star-forming regions to the Sun. The colorful clouds surrounding Rho Ophiuchi represent the visible counterpart of a much larger but invisible molecular cloud permeating the region. This Ophiuchus cloud lies well above the plane of the galaxy, near the border of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. About 1.5 million years ago, a massive star in upper Scorpius exploded as a supernova, sending a powerful shock wave through the Ophiuchus cloud about 1 million years ago, triggering star formation that is still continuing today.

source : livesky.com

RA: 16h 24m 19.7s

DEC: -23° 26’ 55.6“

Location: Ophiuchus

Distance: 390 ly

Magnitude: 5.09

Captured April 2021

Fiel Of view: 22.4 x 13.6 deg

Total integration time of 12 hours.

Please note the picture is "upside down" in order to show the shape of the blue horsehead nebula.

This picture is a 3 panel mosaic with an overlap of almost 20% due to heavy artefacts and defocus/aberrations in the corners.

Original file size of the JPEG version: 21998x13317 pixels (140mo file size)

Technical Details

Data acquisition: Martin PUGH

Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND

Location: Yass, New South Whales, Australia

RGB: 24x600sec per panel

Optics: Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art

Mount: Paramount ME II

CCD: QHY600 C

Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight

Post Processing: Photoshop CC

Milky Way slowly rises over the Baltic Sea and the danish island of Bornholm. The island can be seen at the horizon above the rocks in the shot, as well as the lights from the town of Rönne. This shot is taken from the southeastern most corner of the province of Scania, Sweden.

If you like this shot you can follow me here on Flickr and also on Facebook, or on Instagram, thanks!

Back home and processing a large backlog of photos. This one is from Zion National Park on the 4th of July. The setting moon gave some nice light to The Watchman (lower right) and surrounding hills. Antares (the heart of Scorpius) is the bright star above The Watchman. The Milky Way echoes the angle of the hills to the left of Watchman

This is the monochrome version, which I think I like better than the color version posted earlier

Sony A7IV, Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II, 36mm, f/2.8, ISO12,800, 36 Light Frames and 36 Dark Frames stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker

The Rho Ophiuchi and the Antares region are incredible glimpses of the night sky. They are full of multicolor reflection and dark nebulae.

Blue, orange, cyan and red nebulae decorate one of the most beautiful constellation of the boreal sky: the Scorpius (one of my favourites).

In this photo on the left you can see the cyan/blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula near a scythe-like dark nebula on the right. Two of the three stars inside the Rho Ophiuchi nebula are actually double stars.

Antares is on the right, just a little bit over the frame (south). That's why everything looks golden in that area (Antares is a red giant).

Unfortunately the sky was not perfectly clear that day so the photo is not like I imagined it.

Canon EOS 60D (unmodded) and TS APO 80/480 Triplet on a HEQ5 guided mount (QHY5L-II + 60/200).

Photos were acquired with Astrojan Tools and PHD Guiding.

Calibration and stacking with MaximDL and post processing with PixInsight LE and Photoshop.

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480mm - f/6.0 - ISO800

Light Frames: 24x300''

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The galactic centre area in Sagittarius (at left) and Scorpius (at right) low in the south on a summer night at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. This was June 30/July 1, 2022. Being just 10 days after summer solstice and at latitude +50° North, the sky even to the south still has a blue tint from all-night twilight. I made no attempt to neutralize the sky colouration. In addition, some haze from smoke discoloured the sky and reduced transparency and contrast low in the sky.

Many of the nebulas and star clusters in this part of the Milky Way are visible, many of them showpiece Messier objects for binoculars and telescopes. The colourful area around the star Rho Ophiuchi above Antares is at right, though muted here by the smoke and haze.

This is a blend of a single tracked 1-minute exposure at f/2 with the RF28-70mm lens and ISO 1600 for the sky, with a stack of two 6-minute untracked exposures at f/3.5 and ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Canon R5 on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. A mild Orton glow effect added to the sky with Luminar AI and a mild dynamic Pro Contrast effect added to the ground with Nik Collection 5 Color EFX Pro. LENR in-camera dark frame subtraction employed on all frames on this mild night. Taken between 12:30 am and 1 am.

Shot from suburban backyard at home

An abandoned hayrake sits beneath the starry skies of Fort Rock Oregon.

Interested in taking photos like this? Join me next month for my final workshop of the summer, a single night in Fort Rock, Oregon.

*** All Rights are Reserved***

If you are interested in licensing my copyrighted photos for websites, books, cards, etc, please Email me at: client@bruce-wayne-photography.com

Capturing the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex was like my own personal quest to find the 6 Infinity Stones (which ironically share some of the same colors as many of the objects in this image), and I’ve have been completely obsessed with capturing it. The journey started back in 2020 and ended on the 5th of October 2021. I originally finished collecting data on this object at the end of August 2020, but I decided this year to add Hydrogen-alpha (Ha) and, in the process, like any astrophotographer, I decided the image needed more data, lol. I always envisioned capturing an additional celestial object passing in front of the Cloud Complex, but at the time I had no idea when such an event would occur. When I began collecting Ha in April of this year I discovery that C/2020 T2 Palomar would be passing in front the Complex in October 2021. To be honest, I thought it would be pretty much impossible to capture the comet passing in front of Rho Ophiuchi. With the limited time that Rho Ophiuchi would be in the sky at this time of year combined with the very short window to capture the fading comet, I knew I’d have to get extremely luckily. Not to mention I had no idea what the weather would be like when I was planning this back in April, or even if it would come out the way I envisioned it. But sometimes you get a win in this hobby, the conditions and timing were right, and I was able to capture the comet before it passed out of the Cloud Complex completely.

Thanks for viewing and Clear Skies everyone!

Info about the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex and comet:

Located in the constellation Scorpius, the large multicoloured Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, contains several objects including reflection (blue), emission (red) and dark nebulae as well as a few globular star clusters. The bright shining yellow star Antares (lower left) is about 550 light-years away. While the globular cluster (M4) at the bottom right top is one of the nearest globular clusters to Earth at 7,000 light-years away. The smaller globular cluster between Antares and M4, which is NGC 6144 is nearly 33,000 light-years away!

The comet C/2020 T2 Palomar, was recently discovered by the Palomar/Zwicky Transit Facility survey on the night of October 7th, 2020. This celestial object won’t return to the inner solar system for over another five millennia (the orbital period of this comet is ~5,550 years). The comet topped out at +9th magnitude in August and is now rapidly fading low in the dusk sky. The green comet can be seen near the center of the image, next to the blue reflection nebula on the left.

Tech info:

This image is a 4-panel mosaic. Individual (Ha, L, R, G & B) channels were stacked in AstroPixel Processor and processed in PixInsight, with finishing touches applied in Photoshop. Several telescopes and cameras were used to capture this image. Information regarding filters and exposures can be found below:

Filters and Exposures (Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex) (For 4-panels)

RGB Subs = 180sec; Bin 2x2

Luminance (L) Subs = 300sec & 600sec (~1hr per panel for 600sec subs) Bin 1x1

Ha Subs = 600 sec; Bin 1x1

L = 5.9 hrs

Ha = 7.3 hrs

R = 2.7 hrs

G = 2.7 hrs

B = 2.45 hrs

Filters and Exposures (comet C/2020 T2 Palomar)

RGB Subs = 180sec; Bin 2x2

Luminance (L) Subs = 180sec; Bin 1x1

L = 9 mins

R = 6 mins

G = 6 mins

B = 6 mins

Total Integration Time: 21.5 hrs

Scopes: Takahashi FSQ106 EDX; Tele Vue NP127FLI Refractor

Cameras: FLI Microline 16803; FLI Proline 16803 - Grade 1

Composite of the Rho Ophiuchi dark nebula complex (7 minutes RGB) and Leonard Bay, Wilsons Promontory (6 seconds, 720nm+ infrared).

I took this one the night before one of my night-sky photography workshops at Crater Lake this summer. I'll be announcing my 2015 workshops this Friday at my website, if that's something you're interested in.

I've had a long fascination with this particular pine tree, which sits on the edge of Crater Lake. The erosive forces this thing has endured are incredible. Over the years, this tree has been twisted like a pretzel. It's also formed a hole in it, not unlike the eye of a needle, which is where I got my title for it. We could probably all learn something about resilience and patience from this tree.

Anyway, thanks for checking out the photo!

The constellation Scorpius sets behind Mono Craters near Mono Lake in CA. While one camera was happily clicking away facing the other direction for Perseid Meteors, I set up my tracker to capture Scorpius, Antares, and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex setting behind a nearby cinder cone.

The concept was similar to the Andromeda Rising image from a month ago, except this time, the stars were setting. I used the tracker to take multiple images of the Milky Way and Rho Ophiuchi while still higher in the sky. I then stopped the tracker when the complex came close to setting and the mountain and trees were in view. I then took more images of the mountain to get the noise down and composited them in Photoshop. The scale and positions have been maintained.

Sony A7Rii, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/3.2, ISO1600, 45s, on a StarAdventurer tracker. Lights, Darks, Flats, and Bias images stacked in Siril then processed in Lightroom

Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a dark nebula located in the constellation Ophiuchus. It is one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth and contains a dense concentration of interstellar dust and gas.

Total exposure: 1 hour

Light frames : 20 x 180"

Dark frames : 3 x 180 "

Camera: Nikon D7500

Lens : Nikkor 50 mm at f2.8, ISO 400

Mount : iOptron Skyguider pro

Bortle: Class 4

Location: Kerala, India

A broken piece of juniper (I think it's juniper, anyway) lies at the bottom of a wash at Arches National Park's Park Avenue area. Green airglow mixes with light pollution from Moab (horizon left), and the planets Mars (the red planet above the colorful Rho Ophiuchi region) and Saturn (to Mars' left) are visible.

I've been hard at work (partly this winter, but mostly this spring) on a video series. I had originally intended the videos to complement my workshop materials, but I've been considering releasing them separately. Anyway, if you have any interest in learning my techniques for Milky Way post-processing, I urge you to at least sign up for my mailing list (at the bottom of the linked page), where I'll be making announcements regarding the videos in the coming months:

bencoffmanphotography.com/star-photography-workshops-and-...

This is a focus-stacked, vertical panorama (vertorama) taken with six total frames.

Unknown characters with light on their forehead slithering under the night. Common astrophotographer, often confused with the following: an obsessed mountain creature, a yeti, a ghost, a lost cop, or another creature active only at night. It features a yelling at clouds, seeing different beings and objects in the sky, long and boring talking about invisible things. It often talks in numbers and shortcuts, for example: set ISO 6400, aperture to 2.8, do not forget RAW and sRGB, 5780 Kelvins. In the wild, he is usually shy, characterized by poor integration with the female gender. He loves correct weather forecast, long nights, and feet in warm. Among his weaknesses belongs full moon, a forgotten card, a discharged battery, or foogy night. This was a brief characteristic of our kind.

Rising Milkyway core above the horizon, with the remarkable Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.

Nikon D3300+35mm f/1,8 + Staradventurer

www.facebook.com/pauliephotography

4 years ago I made an image of the Milky Way from this same place. It was more of a test to learn how to stack images, but in the end the image went on to win a prize in the Wiki Loves Earth contest.

I wanted to go back there ever since I bought a skywatcher star adventurer tracker, but then the world went into this terrible situation.

Last week I finally got my chance and remade the image, this time much cleaner. Hope you guys like it.

Better resolution

IC 4604 (Rho Ophiuchi Nebula) is a large diffuse nebula of 5th magnitude located in the southwestern corner of the constellation Ophiuchus, surrounding the bright multiple star system Rho Ophiuchi. Several regions of bright and dark nebulosity surround this area, which takes its name from ρ Oph.

Highlighted by the bright star Antares, the region provides an impressive spectacle of colorful glowing gases, juxtaposed with converging dark rivers of thick dust. Other areas of nebulosity within the region include IC 4603, centered around the star SAO 184376; and IC 4605, around 22 Scorpii. The nebulosity around Antares itself (α Sco) is designated IC 4606. Dark nebulae Barnard 45 and Barnard 42 separate the reflection nebulosity near ρ Oph (IC 4603 and IC 4604) from the nebulosity closer to 22 Sco and Antares (IC 4605 and IC 4606).

At a distance of some 540 light years, IC 4604 is one of the nearest star-forming regions to the Sun. The colorful clouds surrounding Rho Ophiuchi represent the visible counterpart of a much larger but invisible molecular cloud permeating the region. This Ophiuchus cloud lies well above the plane of the galaxy, near the border of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. About 1.5 million years ago, a massive star in upper Scorpius exploded as a supernova, sending a powerful shock wave through the Ophiuchus clouds about 1 million years ago, triggering star formation that is still continuing today.

RA 16h 26m 15.6s

DEC -25° 04' 11.6"

SIZE 4.99 x 4.95 deg

ORIENTATION Up is 88.8 degrees E of N

CONSTELLATION Ophiuchus

DISTANCE 390 ly

DATE May 2021

Total integration time of 23.4 hours.

Technical Details

Data acquisition: Telescope.Live

Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND

Location: Heaven's Mirror Observatory, Yass, Australia

L 32 x 600 sec, R 21 x 300 sec + 32 x 600 sec, G 27 x 300 sec + 21 x 600 sec, B 19 x 300 sec + 22 x 600 sec

OPTICS Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ F/3.6

CAMERA FLI PL 16803

MOUNT Paramount MX+

A close up image into the "Rho Ophiuchus" complex that I imaged back in June 2022 (www.flickr.com/photos/128581947@N05/52177053088/in/dateta...).

This image contains the multiple star "Rho Ophiuchii", and the region is engulfed in nebulosity known as the "Rho Ophiuchus" nebula. This region is in the constellation "Ophiuchus".

This image was exposed with a QHY268M through a simple doublet 80mm refractor (at 500mm focal length) across multiple nights, 23-25 May 2023.

The total integration time was 14 hours and 56 minutes of subs, 112 subs of 300 second for Luminance, and 60 x 60 second subs for the red channel, 60 x 120 second subs for the green channel and 52 x 180 second subs for the blue channel.

Rho Ophiuchi is a multiple star system embedded in a large, star-forming cloud complex of gas and dust in the constellation Ophiuchus. This image was captured under dark skies at the Golden State Star Party near Adin, CA.

Telescope: Televue 76mm refractor with 0.8x reducer (f/5)

Mount: iOptron iEQ45 Pro

Camera: QSI 683wsg

Integration: L 70 min (14 x 3 min) 1x1, RGB 35 min (7 x 5 min) 2x2 each.

The region of Scorpius and Ophiuchus filled with dusty dark nebulas and colourful reflection nebulas, here in a "deepscape" over Sofa Mountain in Waterton Lakes National Park. The yellow star at right in Antares with the Rho Ophiuchi reflection nebulas nearby. At left is the Galactic Dark Horse that includes the Pipe Nebula at bottom. This area of sky was rising at the time, with some green tinting from airglow.

I shot this on June 1, 2021 from the Maskinonge Pond area.

This is a blend of tracked and untracked exposures: a stack of 2 x 1-minute tracked exposures at ISO 3200 for the sky, blended with 2 x 8-minute untracked exposures at ISO 400 for the ground, all at f/2.8 with the Samyang 85mm AF lens and Canon EOS Ra camera. The tracker was the Move-Shoot-Move MSM tracker which mistracked for many of the exposures, giving only 2 out of 16 or so that were tracked properly and not trailed. Using the MSM required a lot of wasted time and unusable exposures.

Shiprock is a volcanic rock formation in the north-western corner of New Mexico. It has been high on my shooting list ever since I first layed my eyes on it in 2017. After being clouded out during two previous attempts, I finally found good conditions during my recent visit.

I particularly liked this composition with Rho Ophichui rising to the right of the peak. Not only because the second syllable of the name Shiprock almost sounds like Rho in Rho Ophichui, but also because the red and yellow flowers in the lower right corner of the frame perfectly reflect the colors of Rho Ophichui above them.

EXIF

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L @ 50mm

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

Stack of 7x 90s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 180s @ ISO6400, filtered

Foreground:

Focus stack of 6x 1/4s @ ISO100, during twilight

Located approximately 460 light-years away from Earth, the interstellar clouds of gas and dust that make up Rho Ophiuchi contain emission nebulas that are rich with red, glowing hydrogen gas and blue reflection nebulas that reflect starlight from their surroundings. The dark-brown regions in the cloud complex consist of interstellar dust grains that prevent any light from passing through.

Nikon D750 + Nikon 70-200 f2.8 + EQ5

Four image stack @ 300mm

I had planned on holding back a number of this spring/summer's Milky Way shots until Oregon's cloudy, Milky Way-free winter took hold, but then I started thinking: What if I get hit by a bus before I ever get a chance to post these?

The title's an allusion to this thought process. Why do we fool ourselves into thinking it's okay to wait? Here's to staying motivated (and busy...maybe too busy), friends. *clinks glass*

Update: I blogged about this photo and added a version annotated with some interesting sky stuff here.

View this one grande, on black for maximum impact.

Night-sky workshops, prints, licensing at my website.

An ancient whitebark pine hangs over the edge of Crater Lake National Park. I took this during my June night-sky photography workshop at Crater Lake National Park. If you're interested in refining your star photography or taking your very first steps in this style of photography, I do have one more summer workshop: a one-nighter at the Fort Rock Museum, where we'll have opportunities to photograph the Milky Way with old homesteads, buildings, and churches. This is a unique opportunity, as the museum is usually closed at night.

More information can be found here: bencoffmanphotography.com/fort-rock-valley-historical-hom...

Thanks for checking out the photo!

The deep, long exposure of 35 - 45 minutes per panel visualizes the fabulous details of galactic dust lanes and the spectacular color details in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. However, the most fascinating and surprising detail is the visualization of the moon's motion relative to the stars, which caused a red glowing moon trail during the eclipse.

The lunar eclipse of May 2022 and the famous dark sky conditions of La Palma allowed me to strive for a more complex project. I collected data for three nights to get a widefield mosaic including the lunar eclipse, deep sky objects and the Milky Way. I had never attempted such an image with a longer lens during an astronomical event, and I had no way to get a second chance. My excitement was raised by the moon's alignment with Rho Ophiuchi and the Milky Way, but the processing mess afterward made me almost lose hope due to my lack of experience.

On May 7 & 8, I shot three panels of 65 subs in advance. Enough time until daybreak since the moon was about getting brighter and more present until full moon on May 16th, when I added the eclipse panel of 92 subs. Since I hiked way up into the mountains to work on some nightscape Panos with another camera contemporaneously, my setup had to be as simple as possible. No guiding, no computer, no counterweight - just a cotton bag filled with stones to stabilize my tripod.

EXIF

Nikon D800a & 85mm f/1.8

Vixen Polarie Star Tracker

4 Panel Panorama

Tracked / Stacked / Blend

220 x 30s - ISO 4000 - f/2.5

Eclipse 92x30s (4:52 - 06:01)

Moon blend 14s - ISO 800 - f/5

Software

DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop, Starnet++, PTGui

Rho Ophiuchi,

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a dark nebula of gas and dust that is one of the closest star-forming regions to the Solar System at 460 light years.

Seen here it reaches above the Milky Way core. The bright "star" is Jupiter.

Shot from South Australia.

source: Wikipedia

Canon 6D

Canon ef-50mm f1.8@f2.8

10s

54 exposures ( 9 minutes total ) stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in PS6

The constellation Scorpius sets behind Mono Craters near Mono Lake in CA. While one camera was happily clicking away facing the other direction for Perseid Meteors, I set up my tracker to capture Scorpius, Antares, and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex setting behind a nearby cinder cone.

The concept was similar to the Andromeda Rising image from a month ago, except this time, the stars were setting. I used the tracker to take multiple images of the Milky Way and Rho Ophiuchi while still higher in the sky. I then stopped the tracker when the complex came close to setting and the mountain and trees were in view. I then took more images of the mountain to get the noise down and composited them in Photoshop. The scale and positions have been maintained.

Sony A7Rii, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/3.2, ISO1600, 45s, on a StarAdventurer tracker. Lights, Darks, Flats, and Bias images stacked in Siril then processed in Lightroom

"The Ecstasy of Gold"

When you see Antares appearing over the horizon, and you know what is to follow will be one of the most awe inspiring things you'll ever see.

I was meant to head out on the 10th for this one, however the weather forecast had changed, so I rushed after work to get all my gear together and head out on the 9th instead.

Wind was strong and cold for the entire shoot, but with a view as epic as this, hardly noticed it.

Sullivan's Rock is located in the Darling Ranges, about an hours drive from the CBD of Perth.

Sky is 45 minutes total integration, and foreground is 6x 30s exposures.

Edited in Rawtherapee and GIMP.

Ah, the Alvord Desert, in southeastern Oregon. You may think you've seen dark skies, but I'm not sure there's anywhere in the continental United States that is darker than the Alvord. It was so dark that long exposures facing a hair east of due south (toward the Milky Way's galactic center at the time) managed to pick up the tiniest bit of light pollution. I'm still trying to figure out if that's from Winnemuca (population 7,000 and over 120 miles away) or the mecca of light pollution, Las Vegas (metro area population 2,000,000 and a whopping 600 miles away). The fact that I could see light pollution at all from either of these places, given their respective sizes and distances, is a testament to how incredibly dark the skies are in that desert.

Notes: There was a surprising amount of moisture in the air (I visited in May), which created the kind of gauzy, undefined look you see in the stars. The green stuff low on the horizon is, of course, airglow. In the sky you're looking at the galactic center of the Milky Way. In the sky on the right side is Rho Ophiuchi (Row O-fee-oochi), a star-forming region.

Photographic notes: Two exposures, one for the land and one for the sky, lovingly and carefully massaged in Lightroom 5 and PS 6.

More night photography, prints, and a "contact me" form for licensing at my website.

A "deepscape" image of the head of Scorpius with the colourful Rho Ophiuchi nebula complex culminating over the icy peak of Mount Custer in Montana, as taken from the north shore of Cameron Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. Antares is the yellow star, with the globular cluster Messier 4 just to the right. The mountain is lit only by starlight. This is from latitude 49° N so this area of sky is low in the south and just clears this mountain even with Scorpius at its highest, which it was here.

This is a blend of tracked and untracked exposures: 4 x 1-minute tracked at ISO 3200 for the sky plus a single 4-minute untracked exposure at ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Samyang 85mm AF lens at f/2.8 on the Canon Ra camera, and on the Move-Shoot-Move MSM tracker, polar aligned with the laser. Out of the 8 tracked shots I took for the set, half were unacceptably trailed. Taken on a very clear night June 2, 2021 with the tracked shots taken after the untracked image. That's a mistake with the MSM as it can take 2 or 3 minutes for the gears to re-engage and start tracking, wasting those shots and valuable time.

This area around Antares has always been difficult for me at my home 47°N latitude. But from Namibia in September, it flies almost directly overhead. From the Khowarib Gorge, there is absolutely no light pollution.

This is a stack of 15 images, 2 minutes each, with a Canon 6D and a 135mm lens, tracked with a StarAdeventurer.

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a dark nebula of gas and dust that is located 1° south of the star ρ Ophiuchi of the constellation Ophiuchus. At an estimated distance of 131 ± 3 parsecs, this cloud is one of the closest star-forming regions to the Solar System.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho_Ophiuchi_cloud_complex

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Stuck in my house for broken bones, i use my time to play with deepsky processing :) normally i don't have so much time to spend for this passion!

This is the first time that i've tryed Drizzle2x processing on a 100mm shots, well working fine :)

This type of processing (Drizzle) is as if it gave a second life to your lens, or have two lenses 100mm and 200mm :)

I held the sky a little brighter to highlight the details of this beautiful region of the sky, which for us who live in the northern hemisphere is always very difficult to take, but in Corsica, with dark sky up on the beach, is a paradise for astrophotographer!

To make this processing i used the same stack of this:

500px.com/photo/158618003

so are the same tech spec, in plus i've added about one our of shots taken the previous days, so are 2h30min of total exposure time with a 100mm Canon EF 2.8@4.5 Canon 600D full spectrum mod on a star adventurer skywatcher 100x2mins @1600ISO ~ taken from nearby Palombaggia, beach, South Corse

This is the most colorful part of night sky from earth.

Here is a frame, that I took in Hawaii May 2009.

www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/3599828315

"Star Formation in the ρ Ophiuchi Molecular Cloud" by Wilking BA 2008 arxiv.org/pdf/0811.0005.pdf

equipmnent: Takahashi FSQ-130ED and Canon EOS 5Dmk3-sp4, modified by Seo-san on Takahashi EM-200FG-Temma 2Z-BL, autoguided with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, Pentax x2 Extender, Starlight Xpress Lodestar Autoguider, and PHD2 Guiding

exposure: 12 times x 15 minutes, 5 x 4 min, and 5 x 1 minute at ISO 3,200 and f/5.0

site: 2,430m above sea level at lat. 24 39 52 South and long. 70 16 11 West near Cerro Armazones Chile

Here’s my first experiment at a Milky Way nightscape photography which includes sufficient exposures and processing to highlight some deep space objects, such as Rho Ophiuchi (that colorful patch behind stars which “bleeds” dark nebula into the Milky Way), which normally don’t make an appearance in already-beautiful Milky Way landscape photography.

This was taken at Antelope Island State Park, Utah (Bortle 4), on April 19, 2021. The bright patch of light in the bottom left-hand section is the light pollution dome over Salt Lake City. The assorted red patches through the Milky Way and in surrounding areas are emission nebula (most prominent in the nebula Sh2-27, a red patch around the star Zeta Ophiuchi toward the top of the composition), which don’t typically show up in images captured by off-the-shelf cameras.

It may go without saying, but this sort of photography brings out detail far, far beyond what we can make out with our crumby eyeballs. Although everyone ought to experience, at least once, what the Milky Way looks like in the night sky under truly dark skies after our eyes have fully acclimated to the darkness. You know, in my rather biased opinion.

Technical Details

Multiple photographs were shot for the sky and the for the foreground. Photos were taken with an Olympus E-M1 Mk.III and the Olympus 7-14/2.8 Pro lens. Additional data was used for emission nebula (see below).

Sky Photographs

45x45 seconds 9mm f/2.8 ISO 640

62x45 seconds 14mm f/2.8 ISO 640

Two series of sky photographs were taken. One focused on the Milky Way and the full field of view and featured the top of the mountain below for placement, and a second series zoomed in more narrowly focused on Rho Ophiuchi and fainter deep space objects appearing to the right of the Milky Way. Dark and bias frames were used; flat frames were not—I forgot my equipment to take flats frames in the dark of night—but should have been. Photos were stacked and initially processed, aligned, and cleaned up in PixInsight, stars separated, and then passed on to Adobe Photoshop.

Landscape Photographs

10x60 seconds 14mm f/6.3 ISO 200

These photographs were stacked and aligned in Adobe Photoshop (allows for bringing out more detail and better colors with less noise) and captured while the moon was still up for some natural light (sky photos captured while the moon was down).

Nebulosity

Some wide angle data of nebulous regions (red patches) was used from some other photographs I’ve captured was used to bring out the red/pinkish regions in the photo. My Olympus camera has not been modified to pick up more red-spectrum light, otherwise this data would have come through properly in the original exposures.

Adobe Photoshop

The final images of the sky and foreground were combined in Adobe Photoshop in position and scale true to the landscape and night sky and edited/blended with masks.

A Couple Thoughts

Next time, I’ll capture more data, and be fussed to capture flat frames. I’ll spend more time getting my mask separating sky from foreground right the first time. An astro-modified interchangeable lens camera would be nice to capture the emission nebulosity if I made a habit of this. In the future I’ll stick to very dark skies. It was unpleasant to process out deep sky detail, without flats, in an image which scaled from fairly dark skies to the intensely bright light pollution above Salt Lake City, although I’m glad I did this once as an homage to the city I live in.

If I had to choose a single image of my trip under the Chilean sky, it would be this 1-minute-exposure-wide-field view of the Milky Way. Why? Simply because of its emotional aspect: I had never seen the southern sky before that date, when I captured this picture back in May 2018.

It was taken from 2 000 meters altitude, in the heart of the Chilean Andes, in the Coquimbo Region. Indeed, that night was the first one in my life I observed the southern starry sly from a remote dark location. The sky was absolutely mind-blowing! The most amazing night sky I have ever seen in my life.

The emotional effect coming from this image is still there today.

To illustrate my words, I can describe you how did the sky look like, as closest as possible to what it really was. The darkness of the night was so intense, that both the stars and the Milky Way itself illuminated the landscape around me, so that I did not need any torch lamp or red light to enhance my night vision. To the naked eye, the galactic bulge seemed to be a shining "daytime" cloud, and the Milky Way was hanging over me like a slightly underexposed black and white picture. Planets Mars and Jupiter were so bright they were starting to disrupt the observation of the Milky Way! (I put my hand in front of them to better enjoy the sky, like we used to do when the Sun is disturbing the observation of a landscape).

Airglow, this peculiar physical phenomenon producing an orange light glow in the sky was heavily present that night. Moreover, we can easily inspect its effect on the picture: the background sky is not black or homogeneous as it should be. We can notice a veil in the darker parts of the image (at the bottom left) and on the upper part of the galactic bulge. In fact, Airglow is what gives an overall orange tint to this wide-field image. What we could consider as a natural source of light pollution.

Even though this view is a single 1 minute exposure, a high amount of celestial objects can be found. The most famous nebulae like Laguna, Trifid, Rho Ophiuchi, Omega, Cat's paw or even stellar clusters such as M7, M25 and the great Sagittarius cluster ...

I hope this deep dive in the darkness of our Galaxy will make you dreaming.

📷 Canon Rebel T5i + Sigma Art 18-35mm f/1.8 lens + Star Adventurer MINI star tracker

→ Single 120 seconds exposure

→ ISO 3200

→ 18 mm

→ f/1.8

I probably do not have to tell you that Tuscany is a photographers paradise in daylight and it is also great at night, as this image from my last visit in May proves.

I have been revisiting the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany for four days this week, but this time, I have not done any nightscapes. That's partly because I was on a family vacation, but I could also blame it on the clouds, the moon phase, the season, the outstanding food, the excellent wine or all the cultural highlights of the area we had to visit.

Tuscany is a prime candidate for heaven on earth - for almost any reason you can dream up.

Prints available:

ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro-modified

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Foreground:

4 x 60s @ISO1600 & 4 x 60s @ ISO3200, stacked

Sky:

5 x 60s @ISO1600 f/2.8, tracked & stacked

This image was a test of the new QHY600M camera using only 45mins of exposure for each RGB filters using a Takahashi FSQ106 EDX3.

IC 4604 (Rho Ophiuchi Nebula) is a large diffuse nebula of 5th magnitude located in the southwestern corner of the constellation Ophiuchus, surrounding the bright triple star Rho Ophiuchi. Several regions of bright and dark nebulosity surround this area, which takes its name from ρ Oph.

Highlighted by the bright star Antares, the region provides an impressive spectacle of colorful glowing gases, juxtaposed with converging dark rivers of thick dust. Other areas of nebulosity within the region include IC 4603, centered around the star SAO 184376; and IC 4605, around 22 Scorpii. The nebulosity around Antares itself (α Sco) is designated IC 4606. Dark nebulae Barnard 45 and Barnard 42 separate the reflection nebulosity near ρ Oph (IC 4603 and IC 4604) from the nebulosity closer to 22 Sco and Antares (IC 4605 and IC 4606). Barnard 44 lies to the east.

At a distance of some 540 light-years, IC 4604 is one of the nearest star-forming regions to the Sun. The colorful clouds surrounding Rho Ophiuchi represent the visible counterpart of a much larger but invisible molecular cloud permeating the region. This Ophiuchus cloud lies well above the plane of the galaxy, near the border of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. About 1.5 million years ago, a massive star in upper Scorpius exploded as a supernova, sending a powerful shock wave through the Ophiuchus cloud about 1 million years ago, triggering star formation that is still continuing today.

source : livesky.com

RA: 16h 26m 49.29s

DEC: -23° 28’ 43.1“

Location: Ophiuchus

Distance: 390 ly

Magnitude: 5.09

Captured July 2020

Fiel Of view: 3.84 x 2.55 deg

Total integration time of 2.25 hours.

Technical Details

Data acquisition: Martin PUGH

Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND

Location: Yass, New South Whales, Australia

R: 3x900sec

G: 3x900sec

B: 3x900sec

Optics: Takahashi FSQ106 EDX3 @F/D 5.0

Mount: Paramount ME II

CCD: QHY600 M

Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight

Post Processing: Photoshop CC

Full resolution on Astrobin

The Rho Ophiuchus Cloud Complex is a nebula found in the constellation Ophiuchus just to the right of the core of the Milky Way. This large cloud of dust and gas surrounds its brightest star, Antares. It's made up of 2 star forming regions that stretch a distance of about 460 light years and has approximately 3x the mass of our sun in gases.

I was able to capture the yellows, browns, and blues, but a unmodified DSLR camera has an infrared filter in front of the sensor that mutes the red colors that are present in the area.

Canon EOS R

Canon 70-200 L f/2.8

Star Adventurer 2i tracker

141 - 45seconds images for a total integration of 1 hour 45 minutes, ISO 2500, f/3.5 140mm

Stacked using Deep Sky Stacker and 50 flat frames

Processed using Photoshop

ioptron skyguider pro experiment

"The Ecstasy of Gold"

When you see Antares appearing over the horizon, and you know what is to follow will be one of the most awe insipiring things you'll ever see.

I was meant to head out on the 10th for this one, however the weather forecast had changed, so I rushed after work to get all my gear together and head out on the 9th instead.

Wind was strong and cold for the entire shoot, but with a view as epic as this, hardly noticed it.

Sullivan's Rock is located in the Darling Ranges, about an hours drive from the CBD of Perth.

Sky is 45 minutes total integration, and foreground a single 30s exposure.

Edited in Rawtherapee and GIMP.