(Milky Way and the Rho Ophiuchi interstellar cloud complex, 460 light years from the Sun)

Nikon z6A, 50mm

Sky: 8 frames stacked - ISO 640, f2.2, 90 sec tracked each frame

Foreground: 10 frames focus stacking in the blue hour

Deep sky + landscape? Why not! This is a blend of 10 120" exposures of the the Rho ophiuchi Cloud complex and one 120" exposure for the landscape. Here is the trick - both photos taken at the same night, from the same place and tripod position - just with tracker off and camera moved slightly down due to aspect ratio blending. Pay attention to a beautiful IC 4592 that fits into 135 mm focal length along with Rho and its dark nebulae.

Location: Pulčín, Czech Republic

Date and time: 16. 4. 2020 around 3AM

Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mark II

Lens: Rokinon 135 mm f/2.9

10x120" f/2.0 ISO 400 + 6 darks

Final image rescaled to 2048px longer side

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Story & technique:

A composition between me and my soulmate. We both love photography and we both love astronomy. I decided to compose my sky with her foreground including glorious wind turbine, because I just fell in love with the photo she took and we wanted to do some project together.

The sky is stack of 20 tracked photos, taken from Bortle 4 area. 20x30" f/2.8 ISO 6400 at 70 mm using my stock Canon EOS 6D Mark II and Canon EF 24-70 mm f/2.8 | Skywatcher Star Adventurer. Foreground is from Nikon D90

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Sky location: Taken from Butořanka, Beskydy, Czech Repubublic from ~700 meters above sea level

Wind turbine location: Petrovice, Usti nad Labem region, Czech Republic

Rho Ophiuchi complex and the "Blue Panther" (IC 4601 & 4592). Sony A7s (CentralDS modded and cooled), ISO2500, IDAS-V4 filter, Canon F1.8/200mm @2.5, 90 x 120sec, CLA-split, Avalon M-Uno unguided, Fuerteventura at sea level 2015-06-15

I am back from Cyprus and finally managed to sit down and start processing images from the trip. This first one is the one I have been waiting to do since last summer. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to deep space widefield astrophotography targets, so I only discovered this little gem last year when I was doing milky way shots.

This little gem is located in Scorpio Constellation. It is called The Rho Ophiuchi Complex and is made up of several different objects. Rho Ophiuchi is the bright triple star surrounded by the blue reflection nebula to the right of the image. M4 globular cluster can be seen at the bottom. Despite its apparent association with the surrounding nebulae, M4 is actually a much more distant background object. To the right of M4 is the blue star Sigma Scorpii. And to the left of M4 is the brightest object in the frame - the red supergiant Antares. Antares' strong stellar wind has created the relatively cool yellow nebula IC 4606 that seems to engulf the star. Finally, the dark nebula spanning across the frame is the Dark River. This nebula is created from dust that is in front of the surrounding nebula and causes us to see it in silhouette.

Exposure details - 42 x 100s at f4, ISO 3200.

I wanted to do longer exposures however, even in summer, this area is high enough above the horizon only for a short time. My first night was interrupted with clouds and i was limited by moonlight on my next attempt.

I am really happy with the results but it's a target I will go back to eventually in the future...

This is an image I processed using original LRGB data from Telescope Live. The telescope is located in Heaven's Valley Observatory near Canberra, Australia.

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a large complex of bright and dark nebulae located in the constellation Ophiuchus. It is located approximately 460 light-years away. The complex of interstellar clouds is one of the nearest star-forming regions to our solar system. The brightest star in this image is Antares (on the right), the fifteenth brightest star in the sky and the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius.

Processed with Pleiades PixInsight and Photoshop CC

Formada por duas grandes regiões de gás denso e poeira na constelação de Escorpião, onde se destaca a estrela Antares (amarelada) e o aglomerado M4.

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As cores espetaculares das suas nuvens destacam os muitos processos que ocorrem lá. O complexo está a 394 anos-luz de distância da Terra.

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As regiões azuis brilham principalmente pela luz refletida. A luz azul da estrela Rho Ophiuchi e de estrelas próximas refletem de forma mais eficiente nesta porção da nebulosa do que a luz vermelha. O céu diurno da Terra parece azul pela mesma razão.

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As regiões vermelhas e amarelas brilham principalmente por causa das emissões de gás atômico e molecular da nebulosa. A luz das estrelas azuis próximas lançam elétrons para longe do gás que, em seguida, brilha quando os elétrons se recombinam com o gás.

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As regiões marrons são causadas por grãos de poeira nascidos nas atmosferas de jovens estrelas, o que efetivamente bloqueia a luz emitida por trás delas.

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As nuvens de Rho Ophiuchi são ainda mais coloridas do que nós seres humanos podemos ver – elas emitem luz em cada faixa de comprimento, de ondas de rádio a raios gama.

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Nikon D5200

Lente 70-300

244 Frames de 20 segundos

210mm @ ISO 1250 - f/5.3

EQ 3-2 com motor OnStep

PixInsight + PS

Interstellar clouds near Rho Ophiuchi (close to IC 4603).

About this image:

A wide field view of a small section of the beautiful interstellar clouds of dust, gas and plasma around Rho Ophiuchi (close to IC 4603).

About the Interstellar cloud colors:

Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. The atoms of gaseous clouds that are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Back-lit dust clouds block light and appear dark. Antares (a red super-giant star, and one of the brighter stars in the night sky), lights up the yellow-red dust clouds. Rho Ophiuchi lies at the center of the blue nebula. Interstellar clouds are even more colorful than we can see in visible light, emitting light across a large portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

About the Star Colors:

You will notice that star colors differ from red, orange and yellow, to blue. This is an indication of the temperature of the star's Nuclear Fusion process. This is determined by the size and mass of the star, and the stage of its life cycle. In short, the blue stars are hotter, and the red ones are cooler.

Gear:

GSO 6" f/4 Imaging Newtonian Reflector Telescope.

Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.

Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter.

Orion StarShoot Autoguider.

Aurora Flatfield Panel.

Celestron AVX Mount.

Celestron StarSense.

Canon 60Da DSLR.

Tech:

Guiding in Open PHD 2.6.1.

Image acquisition in Sequence Generator Pro.

Lights/Subs: 24 x 180 sec. ISO 6400 CFA FIT Files.

Calibration Frames:

50 x Bias

30 x Darks

20 x Flats

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,

and finished in Photoshop.

Astrometry Info:

nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1187386#annotated

RA, Dec center: 246.597164157, -24.4829072417 degrees

Orientation: 1.25352006052 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 5.89501590632 arcsec/pixel

Basic FITS Header Data:

RA = 246.394201383277 / Object Right Ascension in degrees

DEC = -24.376321106111 / Object Declination in degrees

CRVAL1 = 246.394201383277 / RA at image center in degrees

CRVAL2 = -24.376321106111 / DEC at image center in degrees

OBJCTRA = '16 25 34.608' / Object Right Ascension in hms

OBJCTDEC = '-24 22 34.756' / Object Declination in degrees

AIRMASS = 1.25760852461339 / Average airmass

OBJCTALT= 53.0083763980286 / Altitude of the object

CENTALT = 53.0083763980286 / Altitude of the object

DATE-LOC= '2016-07-03T19:44:33' / Local observation date

DATE-OBS= '2016-07-03T17:44:33' / UTC observation date

Martin

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

"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

1 hour total integration time

The Illimani Mountain with a rising Rho Ophiuchi 03/02/2025

Track - Stack - Blend - Composite/FL blend

FG: single shot • 85mm • 30sec • F2.2 • ISO1250

SKY: track stack x20 • 135mm • 30sec • F2.5 • ISO3200

Tracker: staradventurer 2i

Hey Fam! This night was a cosmic gift, somewhat improvised I managed to convince my bro to hit our usual spot 45min outside of LaPaz and what a great decision we took, everything was perfect and I put all my gear to work but I had a specific Deepscape in mind, to align illimani with a rising rho ophiuchi at 03:00am, everything acquired with two A7rii (one astro modded >sky and one normal >foreground). You might ask: why the focal length blend? Well there are two reasons, one is because I had both cameras working simultaneously and two the mountain doesn't fit in the frame at 135mm so 85mm is that sweetspot for the FG and the 135mm is a killer sharp and overall perfect lens for astro (my fav).

Adirondacks

Total exposure : 30 mins

Light frames : 10 x 3 min

Dark frame : 1

Nikon D5600, Nikkor 50 mm f1.8 @ f3.2

Mount : iOptron SkyGuider pro

Bortle scale(light pollution) : class 4

This is from last spring, during my first and only trip to Death Valley's Racetrack Playa. It's an amazing place, and I'm ready to go back any time.

I took far, far fewer photos from this area than I'd hoped to. The rough drive in took a bit longer than expected, and once we had arrived I was surprised to see a number of other night photographers hunkered down by sailing stones all over the playa. It took quite a bit of panicked, pitch-black searching around to find my own stone, where I could carefully set up and take the long exposures required to make this panorama. There's nothing quite like running around in circles in the middle of nowhere while you run out of time to take a photo that you have flown and driven hundreds or even thousands of miles to take.

This is a vertical panorama, taken with a full-spectrum Canon 6D, IR/UV cut filter, Rokinon 24mm f/1.4, and Vixen Polarie. Thanks for having a look!

Last week we went on a short astro trip to the Eifel region in Germany. I was inspired by Uros fink to use a longer focal length to capture the milky way including Rho Ophiuchi. Rho Ophiuchi is a cloud complex known by his interstellar clouds and different nebulae and colors. It is located on the right side of the picture.

This was also my first time shooting the milky way with my astro modified camera. The learning curve in editing was quite steap.

Comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) in Scorpius, passing the Rho Ophiuchi region, with a bonus meteor trail on 18 Aug. 2022, from the Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area in Greene County, Indiana.

Wide-field: Nikon D850 DSLR, Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens, 32 frames, each 2 min., f/4, ISO 800, tracked with an iOptron SkyGuider Pro. Combined in Astro Pixel Processor and post-processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Meteor masked and layered into the composite from one frame.

Comet detail: Explore Scientific ED102 FCD-100 107mm f/7 Apochromat, ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled, one-shot, CMOS camera, iOptron CEM25P mount, ZWO ASIAir Pro controller, auto-guided, UV/IR cut filter. 12 frames, 5 min. each, gain 150, -10ºC. Combined in Astro Pixel Processor with flats and darks; combined twice: registered on the stars, and separately registered on the comet. Post-processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hopefully, you're all safe and well, whether you're in isolation, quarantine, or able to roam free. I hope that once the restrictions have been lifted in your area, you'll be able to get out to see, smell and hear the natural world that has been going on regardless of we humans. I'm itching to be out under the night again, listening to the land, surveying the sky and revelling in recreation.

Although my unaided eyes won't be able to make out the details and features in the sky shown in today's photos, I'm posting it to remind myself–and hopefully you–of the beauty that our universe contains. The region of the sky featured in my image crosses the constellations of Scorpio and Ophiuchus. In the lower-left quarter of the shot is the area of space known as the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, a dark nebula of gas and dust in which new stars are being formed. Look at those colours! There are so many wonders for us to behold.

I created this image by shooting thirteen six-second long pictures of the sky, plus eleven "dark" frames. The dark frames are used to help reduce the digital noise in the image when all of the photos are combined in a software process called stacking. To capture each one of those twenty-four frames I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400.

HaRGB image of the Rho Ophiuchi and Antares region part of the Milky Way. About 80% of the data is from broadband imaging. FOV is 6.73 degrees.

Shot from my backyard in north Puerto RIco with a 1996 Canon 135mm f/2 lens and the ASI2600MC Pro camera.

Post Processed using Siril,Starnet++ and Photoshop CC.

The rho ophiuchi molecular cloud complex in scorpius. captured 30x70" with my new pentax super-takumar 135 last night hoping to compare it to the images produced by my pentax-k 135. unforunately my mount died before I could get a full hour in on the target so I decided to combine this data with data I captured back in May. The verdict is that the Takkumar is slightly sharper and better corrected for chromatic abberation, but it comes at the cost of less light gathered and coma in the corners. I will likely use both lenses going forward, perhaps this could be the birth of a dual imaging setup down the road.

canon rebel sl1, skywatcher star adventure

30x70" pentax super-takumar 135/3.5 @ f/~4.5 captured 7-21-20

14x90" pentax-k 135/2.5 @ f/3.6 captured 5-13-20

This view frames the spring (in the northern hemisphere) constellations of:

– Libra, the Scales, at right marked by its two main stars, the wonderfully named Zubeneschamali (top) and Zubenelgenubi (bottom), which used to mark the two claws of the Scorpion (which is what their names mean)

– Scorpius, the Scorpion, itself, with the bright yellow star Antares, and the blue stars Graffias and Dschubba which mark the head of the Scorpion

– and the southern portion of Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, at left

All are low on my horizon from latitude 51º N in Alberta. Scorpius was not yet on the meridian due south (Libra was) so it can appear a little higher. But not much!

Even so, some of the colourful nebulas around Antares show up (popularly referred to as the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula), as well as the large faint red nebula, Sharpless 2-27, to the north in Ophiuchus around the star Zeta Ophiuchi. At left is the Dark Horse in the Milky Way, which includes the Pipe Nebula, all in Ophiuchus.

Several Messier clusters and nebulas also populate the field, such as the globular cluster M4 near Antares, the globular M10 and M12 at top in central Ophiuchus, and the nebulas M8 and M20 at lower left in Sagitarius. Above them is the open cluster M23.

Technical:

This is a stack of 10 x 1 minute exposures with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 35mm, and wide open at f/2.8 on the astro-modified Canon R at ISO 800. It was on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker. An exposure through a Tiffen Double Fog 3 filter and blended in adds the star glows to accentuate the constellation patterns and star colours.

© Carlos Arango

Taken from Savannah Skies Observatory using a Canon EOS Ra and 400 mm lens.

LINK

Other images from this series:

1. M8 and M20: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51050919231/

2. M16: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51050319198/

3. NGC 6188: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51051043096/

4. M78: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51050317763/

5. Rho Ophiuchus: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51051288802/

6. Tarantula Nebula: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51051288607/

7. Vela SNR: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51050478748/

We had several locations intended for this night, but a combination of smoke and killer mosquitos changed our plans. Our last option was the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest at 10,000 feet, which we hoped would escape the smoke. Along the way we stopped to explore this scenic overlook. I was stoked to see the sky was clear and I would be getting a few more Milky Way shots before our weekend getaway came to an end. My fiancée Angela wanted to do some light drawing, so we had some fun taking turns running up this hill with our flashlights. Only laughs became of those. She then wanted this sign in the image and totally dialed in the comp. At one point we passed the flashlight back and forth, each painting light on different areas. We collaborated on processing, too. The saturation here is Angela approved, and she gave me a bunch of diffuse filter examples to try. It took me a while to come up with this effect in PS, but I think this is a close match to using a diffuse filter on the lens, and provides visual interest.

EXIF

Canon 6D 20 sec f/2.8 ISO 6400 .. 4 sequential images

Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM .. Set to manual

Processed with DPP and PS

SOCIAL

instagram.com/brian.design.ig

flickr.com/22920269@N03

6/25/2017 11:15 PM

This is the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, which lies near the summer Milky Way on the border between the constellations of Scorpius and Ophiuchus. This area is loaded with gas and dust, and is home to many deep sky objects. It is also one of the more colorful nebulae in the sky.

Image Info

Imaged from the KPO field in Saint Cloud, Florida.

Camera : ZWO ASI1600MM Pro, Gain set to 200

Lens: Canon 100-400 f/5.6L lens, set to 135mm

Mount: iOptron SmartEQ Pro

Red: 12 subframes of 300s = 60 min integration

Green: 8 subframes of 300s = 40 min integration

Blue: 10 subframes of 300s = 50 min integration

Luminance: 11 subframes of 300s = 55 min integration

Hydrogen Alpha: 2 subframes of 300s = 10 min integration

Total integration time: 215 min = 3.6 hours.

Captured via ASIAir Pro automation

Optical tracking via ASIAir automation, currently using ST4 mount control via the ASI120MM-S guide camera

Separate channels stacked and HaLRGB integrated in Astro Pixel Processor, and processing for light pollution sky fog removal

Image cropped, stretched, and noise processed in Nebulosity.

Final processing in Aperture

About this image

A widefield image of a section of the gas and dust of the beautiful large Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Rho Ophiuchi is a dark nebula of gas and dust located 1° south of the star ρ Ophiuchi in the constellation Ophiuchus (close to the red Supergiant star Antares).

Gear:

William Optics Star 71mm f/4.9 Imaging APO Refractor Telescope.

William Optics 50mm Finder Scope.

Celestron SkySync GPS Accessory.

Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope.

Orion StarShoot Autoguider.

Celestron AVX Mount.

QHYCCD PoleMaster.

Celestron StarSense.

Canon 60Da DSLR.

Astronomik Clip-In CLS Light Pollution Filter.

Tech:

Guiding in Open PHD 2.6.3.

Image acquisition in Sequence Generator Pro.

Lights/Subs:

18 x 180 sec.

ISO 3200 RGB (CLA FITS)

Calibration Frames:

30 x Bias/Offset.

30 x Darks.

30 x Flats & Dark Flats.

Image Acquisition:

Sequence Generator Pro with the Mosaic and Framing Wizard.

Plate Solving:

Astrometry.net ANSVR Solver via SGP.

Processing:

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,

and finished in Photoshop.

Astrometry Info:

Annotated Sky Chart for this image.

Center RA, Dec: 248.666, -24.411

Center RA, hms: 16h 34m 39.831s

Center Dec, dms: -24° 24' 40.276"

Size: 3.31 x 1.86 deg

Radius: 1.898 deg

Pixel scale: 7.45 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: Up is 90.5 degrees E of N

View this image in the World Wide Telescope.

Martin

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This is a two pane mosaic stretching from Libra to Sagittarius, captured from Barronal beach in Cabo de Gata, Spain. The bright yellow/gold 'star' on the right is Saturn in all it's glory.

I've always loved this area of the sky, it has almost anything you care to name. In this image you can see emission nebula, reflection nebula, dark nebula, globular clusters, open clusters, millions of individual stars, a planet, and a section of our home galaxy!

Canon 60Da

35mm Samyang at f/2.8

Astronomik CLS EOS Clip Filter

AstroTrac TT320X-AG (no guiding)

45x 120 second exposures per pane

Integration time: 90 minutes per pane

ISO 1600

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, stitched in Microsoft ICE and processed in Photoshop. Taken in Cabo de Gata National Park in Spain, May 2014.

Per pane:

35x 120s lights

35 darks

35 flats

35 dark flats

35 bias frames

Objects visible in the image:

M4 (NGC 6121), M20 (NGC 6514), M8 (NGC 6523), M21 (NGC 6531), M17 (NGC 6618), M16 (NGC 6611), M23 (NGC 6494), M25 (IC 4725), NGC 6604

There's no richer and more colourful area of the sky than this field encompassing the Galactic Center in Sagittarius at left and the constellation of Scorpius seen in full here at centre and at right. The Dark Horse prances at top with dark tendrils of dust r.eaching down to yellow Antares and the colourful emission and reflection nebulas of the Rho Ophuichi area.

Lots of Messier objects popular the field, from M24 (aka the Small Sagittarius Starcloud) flanked by the M23 and M25 clusters at upper left, down past M8 and M20 nebulas, the Lagoon and Trifid, and the pair of star clusters M6 and M7 above the tail of Scorpius. In the tail are the Cat's Paw Nebula, NGC 6334, and the False Comet area with the IC 4628 nebula. The Blue Horsehead, IC 4592, is at upper right off the head of Scorpius.

The Galactic Center is left of center in the dark bay above the M6 star cluster and below the bright Sagittarius Starcloud.

This is a stack of 6 x 2 minute exposures with the Canon RF 28-70mm lens at f/2 on the Canon Ra at ISO 800, on the AP400 mount. Shot on the morning of March 15, 2024 from the Warrumbungles Mountain Motel, near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia.

Happy New Year! I hope 2024 to be a fabulous year for you!

image produced 16-07-2023

This is my second cosmic volcano image in the series and this one actually blew my mind how it turned out, everything that I planned for turned out pretty much perfect.

So for this Deepscape I actually did everything to get as good and precise of an alignment as possible, check the last slide for my Planit Pro screenshot, this was not 100% the exact location but at least 95% exact, the point is I knew Rho was setting and from what I could see and check in various apps it was going to align perfectly with both or one of the twins or payachatas, this time everything pointed to Pomerape, Parinacotas twin.

This series has the intention to show dormant volcanos of Bolivia aligning with various deepsky objects to give the feel it's actually erupting but on a cosmic level, it was a natural step for me to take since I've been doing deepscapes for some time now and find it absolutely fascinating and will keep on going. For the exif check the other images I posted together with the main image.

Nikon D3200 (Stock)

Rokinon 135mm f/2 ED UMC lens

f/2

ISO 1600

AstroTrac TT320X-AG - no guiding

Induro CLT404L Tripod

Acquisition:

102 x 60" lights (1hr. 42 min. total integration time)

50 flats from archive

Processing:

Adobe Camera Raw, Deep Sky Stacker, RNC-Color-Stretch, & Photoshop.

This version has labels.

It captures the rich region of the summer Milky Way around the galactic centre as it was rising into position over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills â this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills â this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills â this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.

La nébuleuse Rho Ophiuchi et Antares à 200 mm (équivalent à 300 mm en 24x36: 28photos, 18 Darks, 19 Offsets ; 22 Flats. Assemblage dans IRIS puis Photoshop CS4 et cosmétique dans PS CS4. Nikon D5300 modifié astro par Eos for Astro, Nikkor 70-200mm F/2.8 VR Suivi à l'aide d'une Astrotrac 320x. Nikon D5300 avec filtre clip in LPS-V4-N5

Paramètres: 28x 100s F/2.8 ISO 1600, 200mm.

Série prise le 29.07.2019 depuis les Bayards. Malheureusement, une mauvaise prévision de ma part a conduit à l'apparition d'un espalier à plantes dans le champ, puis d'arbres. La session a été faite en 2 sous sessions et assemblée dans PS CS4. En raison du grand nombre d'astronefs étant passés dans le champ, j'aurais dû opter pour un empilement par sigma clipping, mais mon signal restait malheureusement trop faible et j'ai dû effectuer un empilement par somme et un binning x2 ensuite...

La nébuleuse Rho Ophiuchi et Antares à 200 mm (équivalent à 300 mm en 24x36: 32 photos, 15 Darks, 20 Offsets ; 19 Flats. Assemblage dans IRIS et cosmétique dans Photoshop CS4. Nikon D5300 modifié astro par Eos for Astro, Nikkor 70-200mm F/2.8 VR Suivi à l'aide d'une Astrotrac 320x. Nikon D5300 avec filtre clip in LPS-V4-N5

Paramètres: 32x 76s F/3.2 ISO 1600, 200mm.

Série prise le 21.07.2019 depuis un champ (la cible se trouvait presque au dessus de la ville, ce qui générait donc une importante pollution lumineuse).

Dans la constellation du Scorpion (Scorpius), Rho Ophiuchi est un nuage moléculaire géant de la Voie lactée, à 420 années-lumière de la Terre, composé en partie d'hydrogène ionisé et de poussière sombre. Il doit son nom à l'étoile qui domine la région dans laquelle il se trouve, ρ Ophiuchi, située dans la constellation d'Ophiuchus. Le complexe de Rho Ophiuchi apparaît divisé en deux nuages principaux, connectés à plusieurs filaments nébuleux sombres. Grâce à sa proximité, il constitue un domaine de recherche intéressant sur l'évolution initiale des étoiles de faible masse et des naines brunes, et sur la formation d'étoiles à la chaîne.

Dans cette région de formation d'étoiles la plus proche de la Terre, Webb a repéré environ 50 jeunes étoiles, dont beaucoup sont proches en masse de la notre, nous donnant un aperçu des débuts du Soleil. Des cocons de poussière sombres et denses forment encore des protoétoiles, tandis qu'un nouveau-né stellaire émerge (en haut au centre) et projette deux énormes jets d'hydrogène moléculaire.

Description de l'image

Deux jets rouges opposés provenant de jeunes étoiles remplissent la moitié supérieure plus sombre de l'image. En bas au centre, se trouve une structure jaune pâle brillante, semblable à une grotte, au sommet incliné vers deux heures, avec une étoile brillante en son centre. La poussière de sa structure devient vaporeuse vers huit heures. Au-dessus du sommet voûté , trois groupes d'étoiles avec des pointes de diffraction sont disposés. Un nuage sombre se trouve au sommet de l'arche de de poussière rougeoyante, avec une banderole enroulée sur le côté droit. L'ombre sombre du nuage apparaît pincée au centre, avec une lumière émergeant en forme de triangle au-dessus et en dessous de ce pincement, révélant la présence d'une étoile à l'intérieur du nuage. Les plus grands jets de matière rouge émanent de ce nuage sombre, épais et affichant une structure comme la face rugueuse d'une falaise, brillant plus fort sur les bords. En haut au centre, une étoile affiche une autre ombre noire pincée plus grande, cette fois verticalement. À gauche de cette étoile se trouve une région plus vaporeuse et indistincte (cf. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan STScI, traitement de l'image : Alyssa Pagan STScI).

Pour situer le nuage Rho Ophiochi dans la constellation du Scorpion (Scorpius) :

www.flickr.com/photos/7208148@N02/48686697747

The beautiful Rho Ophiuchi region seen as a wider field (85mm) image. This data was captured at Cherry Springs State Park in northern Pennsylvania on 5/13/21. The image consists of 43 x 60" subs shot with a Nikon D750 and Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8 and ISO 1600.

Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex

Rho Ophiuchi + IC 4592

Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello

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

IC 4592 (called the Blue Horsehead Nebula) is a reflection nebula in the Scorpius constellation.

Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse.

That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward the Scorpius. A second reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars at the image center.

Its distance is about 400 light-years.

The blue area at the bottom is part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.

This is my second attempt at processing this image, I think the result looks better than my last try. I still need more data though.

Canon 60Da

Tamron 24-70mm at 70mm

Astronomik CLS EOS Clip Filter

22x 120 second exposures

ISO 3200 at f/2.8

Tracked using an AstroTrac TT320X-AG (no guiding)

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in Photoshop.

Taken in Cabo de Gata National Park in Spain, May 2014.

The center of this view was barely fifteen degrees above the horizon when I started imaging it, I was killing time waiting for my main target to rise in to view.

22 Lights

30 Darks

30 Flats

We spent a few days exploring sites around the Eastern Sierra region during the recent new moon. After planning several locations for this night, we headed towards the Mobius Arch before sunset only to find thick smoke filling the valley in front of us. We turned around just in time to set up for our second location in Owens Valley, only to quickly realize the entire valley was inhabited nightly with millions of mosquitos. We’re still finding bites a week later. At this point smoke was rapidly moving north and filling the entire valley all the way to the mountain tops, right into our view, so most of our locations were smoked out .. except the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest at over 10,000 feet.

We’ve been to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest once before, a year ago when we hiked the 4.5-mile Methuselah Trail in search of this tree. It’s a great trail and we found all sorts of amazing trees and information, however this tree is not on that trail. This time around we scouted the much shorter Discovery Trail earlier in the day, and found this photogenic tree.

When we parked at the Schulman Grove Visitor Center we could see the flashlight activity of photographers leaving along the trail. We made our way up to find another photographer in the process of packing up, leaving us alone with this ancient tree in front of the Milky Way. The air was clean, so I set a high ISO to record the intense airglow I saw with earlier images taken at the nearby view point.

The oldest known living tree on earth is located on this mountain, and many of the trees here are thousands of years old. Growth rings of trees in this area have been crossed-matched for a continuous growth history of well over 10,000 years.

This hobby started three years ago with a hacked point and shoot camera and my LEGO Barn Door Tracker Project.

EXIF

Canon 6D 15 sec f/2.8 ISO 12800 .. 6 sequential images

Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM .. Set to manual

Processed in PS

SOCIAL

instagram.com/brian.design.ig

flickr.com/22920269@N03

6/26/2017 12:32 AM

Rho Oph

Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello

Tair-3S 300mm f/4.5 + Canon EOS 4000D on Avalon M-zero Obs mount

Taken from Piano Visitone (1420m), Pollino National Park, Italy in August 2021.

The Antares - Rho Ophiuchi - Region is a very colorful and interesting area in the constellations of Scorpius & Ophiuchus. It is not mandatory to have a telescope for taking photos of it and so I tried to create a landscape panorama with this colorful nebulas in the sky - just using a Star tracker and a 50mm lens.

The conditions end of May at La Palma were perfect and I took the chance to setup my gear in the wind protected area near the Observatory Roque de Los Muchachos - an outstanding place with and outstanding dark and clear nightsky.

One hour after sunset - Antares showed up and I was able to get the panorama of the MAGIC and Mercator Telescopes in the foreground and the beautiful different types of nebulas in the sky. Jupiter and the Milky Way were already crawling over the horizon and put the dust stream connection - known as Dark River - perfectly in scene. Love it!

EXIF

Panorama / Tracked

Nikon D810 / Nikon AF-S 50mm

Vixen Polarie Star Tracker

3 x 3 / ISO 3200 - f/2.2 - 60sec

This captures the rich region of the summer Milky Way around the galactic centre as it was rising into position over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills – this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.

Rho Ophiuchi Nebula Complex in Scorpio, Canon 200mm F1.8, Sony A7s (CentralDS modded and cooled), IDAS-V4 filter, ISO3200, 91 x 80 sec, flat calibration, Avalon M-Uno, 2015-06-06, Tenerife 1200m. I tried a (for me) totally new processing technique: splitting the CFA in four monochrome images, registering, integration, dynamic background extraction, masked stretching for each color, the both greens together to one and one luminance stack from all 384 monochrome subframes.

Photographed the Antares region from a bortle 3 region in the Cevennes, France.

10 degrees above the horizon

105mm lens, D800. No filter

45 x 60sec exposure

This captures the colourful and contrasty area of summer sky in Scorpius and Ophiuchus as it was rising into position over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low in the south.

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. Beside it is the fuzzy-looking Messier object, M4, a globular star cluster. Several other Messier globulars are in the field: M9, M19, M62, and M80, but all appearing starlike at this scale.

The pink nebula at left in Sagittarius is Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula. Above it is the smaller Trifid Nebula M20.

At right the region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-29. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

The most notable sky feature is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59. Above it is the small Snake Nebula, B72.

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images, resulting in a square format image.

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 56mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills – this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.

just a single shot milky way image.. a clear sky in Australia i can easy take a good quality photon.. i think Hong Kong hard to get it even 1 hour.. sosad