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In the Scorpion's Heart... |
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THE
RHO-ANTARES REGION - WIDE FIELD MOSAIC in SCORPIUS
Credit
line - Jay Ballauer, Phil Jones, and Adam Block
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About this Object: |
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This area of Scorpius produces the prettiest photographs! The bright yellow star Antares, the heart of Scorpion, produces a curious yellow nebulosity; very rare. That would ordinarily be pretty enough but many other colorful objects adorn this view. Three areas of blue nebulosity appear, most notably around the triple star system of Rho Ophiuchi at the upper right. Another area of blue nebulosity surrounds the triple star system of 22 Scorpi, just above Antares. Between the two triple star systems is IC 4603, itself a pretty blue nebula. Red nebulosity also appears in the area around Sigma Scorpi at the upper right and below Antares itself. The great M4 globular cluster appears just to the right of Antares and another smaller globular, NGC 6144 can be seen right in the middle of everything else. And all this is covered with the dust of dark nebula, such as Barnard 42 in the upper left. Therefore, the images shows every type of nebulosity imaginable; red hydrogen emission nebulae, blue and yellow reflection nebulae, and dark nebulae. In total, this area of colorful dust is quite extraordinary! Click <here> to view this object from a grayscale perspective. |
Location:
Kitt
Peak National Observatory near Tuscon, Arizona.
Date:
June 2, 2005
Seeing:
3/10
Transparency: 9/10
Temperature: 52 degrees F
(-20 degrees C on camera)
Scope/Mount: Tak FSQ-106 @ f/5 and Paramount ME
Camera: SBIG STL-11000M astro
CCD camera
Exposure Info: Two
frame mosaic, RGB
image; 20:20:30 RGB for each frame (10 minute subexposures
all unbinned), processed with synthetic luminance
Processing Information:
Calibration
(darks, bias, flats), Registration, gradient removal, and RGB channel combine in MaxIm DL 4
(mean combine). LRGB
combine, mosaic stitching, cropping, color balance, levels/curves, sharpening, and
noise removal in Photoshop CS.
Exposure Notes: String used on the front of the aperture to give the diffraction spikes on the stars. Data was taken by Jay Ballauer, Phil Jones, and Adam Block. Image processing done by Jay Ballauer. Special thanks to Adam Block for hosting Phil and I at the Advanced Observer's Program atop Kitt Peak. Likewise, thanks to the Three Rivers Foundation and Dr. Fred Koch for sponsoring the trip.
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