Stacks Image 300

Area around Antares in Scorpius

About this object

This beautiful area around the bright orange star Antares contains many neat objects. Antares itself reflects light off nearby dust cloud which glows with the same color as Antares itself. This dust cloud continues off the the left of the field of view. To the right of Antares is the Globular cluster M4 shining at a magnitude of 5.4. Above and slightly to the right of Antares is the Globular Cluster NGC 6144 shining at magnitude 9.0. In the upper left hand corner of the image is the star 22 Scorpii which reflects light off a nearby dust cloud labeled IC4605 and glows blue. In the upper right is the Star 20 Sigma Scorpii and it also shows a faint bluish glow around the star. To the right of 20 Sigma Scorpii is a red emission nebula. Within the entire image is background dust which is ore prominent near the upper center of the image. Many contrasting colors makes this area a favorite for astrophotographers worldwide.

Image Details

  • Optics : Stellarvue SV105 Raptor with Stellaruve 2.5" field flattener
  • Mount: Mountain Instruments MI-250
  • Camera: SBIG STL 11K
  • Filters: Standard SBIG color filters
  • Exposure: LRGB 120:60:60:60 RGB bin 2x2
  • Camera/Mount Control: Maxim DL 4.56, CCD Commander
  • Location: Stark Bayou Observatory, Ocean Springs, MS
  • Date: June 09
Stacks Image 301
Stacks Image 302