Looking like a colorful cosmic fireworks display, the area surrounding the stars Antares and Rho Ophiuchi, on the border between the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, dazzles with colorful emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity and star clusters.
At left is the tri-star Rho Ophiuchus, surrounded by a blue reflection nebula called IC 4604. Dark dust lanes billow to the lower right of it. The bright yellowish star at lower right is 1st-magnitde star Antares in a pool of yellow emission and reflection nebulosity. Near the top of the photo, bathing in red emission nebula Sh2-9, is the bright star Sigma Scorpius. The big globular cluster M4 glitters in the upper right of the image, and if you look closely you'll see another, smaller globular to its lower left-that's NGC 6144.
This expansive region of the summer Milky Way is perfect for wide-field photography with a camera lens, in this case a 200mm focal-length lens.
Astro-images taken through a telescope on a tracking mount provide breathtaking color and detail that you just can't see with your eyes alone. The astro-images on our web site demonstrate the imaging capabilities of the products used and are not intended to represent what you will see when you look through a telescope. Learn More
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