Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex

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Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex

[Public Domain] 2 Aug 2014 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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My New Zealand readers might be familiar with the big kiwi bird in the Sagittarius region of the milky way. Can you see it? It looks kind of like a big ball sack to me but I can go with kiwi bird, sure.

This tiny patch of the milky way is dominated by Antares, the bright orange star on the left. Dark wispy tendrils of gases and clouds in this area are star-forming nebula that are so large, I can photograph them with a regular DSLR 55mm lens as done here.

This image is made from 20 x 30″ exposures stacked together to draw out the cloud definition. The camera was piggybacked to a telescope that was tracking the sky rotation so the stars would not streak.

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