About the Subject

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a system of interstellar clouds with several different diffuse nebulae including dark nebulae (where gas and dust blocks light from background stars), reflection nebulae (where star light is scattered much like our atmosphere scatters the sun's light to form a blue sky), and emission nebulae (where ionized gas glows much like a neon light). It covers a large swath of sky in the constellations of Scropius and Ophiuchus. This image is a twelve panel mosaic taken with a 1,124mm telescope over three different nights. Due to short summertime nights, only seven hours of data were captured, but the clouds of gas and dust are bright enough to show well even with limited exposure time.