IC 4604 - Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex
IC 4604 -Rho Ophiuchi is an enormous interstellar cloud complex that straddles the constellations Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer) and Scorpius (aka Scorpio). It contains, emission nebulae, reflection nebulae and dark nebulea as well as.
At a distance of only 460 light-years, it's one of the closest star forming regions to Earth.
The bright orange/yellow star at the right-center of photo is the massive red-supergiant star Antares.
Above and to the right of Antares in the photo is the M4 globular star cluster which is located about 6,000 light-years from Earth.
Directly above Antares in the photo is the NGC6144 globular star cluster which is located about 33,000 light-years from Earth.
At the top of the center of the photo is the M80 globular star cluster which is also located about 33,000 light-years from Earth.
This object has been on my bucket list for a long time, but it's a pretty difficult target to capture from my latitude and my specific location. It's only about 15 degrees above the mountains in my southern horizon at its highest point. It's not visible from the observatory unfortunately because of trees in the back yard.
So, to capture it I had to set up a separate telescope and mount outside of the observatory and behind those trees.
Image acquisition and processing information:
Date: Jun 7th, 2024
Telescope: Askar FMA180 Pro
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G
Camera: ZWO ASI-2400 MC Pro one-shot-color camera
Guiding: Telescope: AstroTech 115EDT triplet refractor using Camera: ASI-294 MC Pro
Exposures: 174 one-minute exposures
Image acquisition and guiding: ASIAIR Plus
Image processing Software: PixInsight v. 1.8.9-2