StarTools

This image and text were uploaded to Astrobin this morning. https://www.astrobin.com/5hssh9/ Processing was with version 1.8 on an iMac, which continues to blow me away.

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This famous cloud complex is one of the easiest star forming places to observe and is visible from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Nevertheless, no matter how many times you’ve imaged it, Rho Ophiuchi is endlessly impressive.

For those of us who use remote telescopes, the big challenge is getting quality images with short integrated exposure times. The Very Small Telescope is perfectly suited for the job, with great optics and F2 speed. This image of Rho Ophiuchi got only two hours of exposure time, but I’m pleased with the detail and dynamic range. Astro images are especially susceptible to blocked midtowns, but these turned out fine.

Tech Notes for Very Small Telescope
Nikon 200mm lens, f/2
10 Micron GM1000HPs Robotic Mount
FLI Microline 16200 CCD Camera, 6mm pixel
Processing with PixInsight, StarTools, and Affinity Photo

Nice! Amazing colors and details in this region whenever I see images of it. I'll have to look for the location again. I know it's to the south and I have a lot of potential interference that way. That said, I pulled off Omega Centauri earlier this year, so might again just be a matter of moving the mount to a special location.

Off the top of my head though I think I remember this being too wide field for me to capture, unless I use a camera lens.

Some colors along your very lower left edge though - real? Almost has the appearance of a stacking artifact.

I look at images like this and think: "How is this even possible?" Especially the dark nebulae. I haven't taken on this object yet. I'm still working on the rest of the Messier catalog. Have about 40 to go.

I just noticed something. The bright yellow large star in the sort-of lower right hand side of the image. There's a faint circle about a finger's width away from the central star....

Is that an expanding shockwave from something?