The Rho Ophiuchi nebula complex and Antares region are beautiful, gigantic clouds of colorful cosmic dust and gas, in constellations Ophiuchi and Scorpio.
In the lower part of the picture you can see the bright yellow star Antares, which is a red supergiant that tints the interstellar material surrounding it with yellow a glow. This yellow reflection nebula is called IC 4606. Antares got its name from ancient Greeks meaning "anti-Mars" because the color of the planet in the night sky is very similar. Antares is almost 900 times bigger than our Sun and it’s 550 light years from us.
Above the Antares, on the right is the Messier 4 a globular cluster which distance is only 7200 light years, this makes it one of the closest globular clusters. The cluster set was discovered by a Swiss astronomer Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1746 and cataloged by Charles Messier in 1764.
Rho Ophiuchi is the bright triple star at the upper part of this image, that is surrounded by the blue reflection nebula, IC 4604. The blue light of a triple star system illuminates the gas and dust cloud surrounding it.
Emission nebulas can also be seen in this region, which shines red. Contrary to reflection nebulas, emission nebulas emit it’s own light because of the ionising effect of the hot radiatiant young stars. The brownish, darker parts of the image are called dark nebulas, because they neither emit, nor reflect any light from nearby stars. Thick, dense dust clouds that absorb the light of the stars behind them.
The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex 460 light-years away, making it one of the closest stellar nurseries to our solar system.
INSTRUMENT Canon EF 70-200mm L IS USM
CAMERA Canon EOS 60Da
MOUNT Skywatcher HSQ5 Pro
GUIDING Lacerta MGen Autoguider
EXPOSURE TIME 68x5min iso 800
LOCATION Isabis Farm, Namibia
