Astrophotographer Greg Meyer captured a panoramic view of the Rho Ophiuchi stellar nursery and Messier 4 globular cluster whereas attending a stargazing occasion in Texas final month.
Meyer used a thermoelectrically cooled monochrome astronomy digicam mounted on a compact Radian Raptor 61mm telescope to snap 177 separate three- to five-minute exposures of the huge interstellar cloud. All advised, it took a grand complete of 14 hours and 45 minutes to picture Rho Ophiuchi with a sequence of pink, inexperienced, blue and luminance filters throughout the 2025 Texas Star Social gathering stargazing occasion, which occurred from April 20 to April 27.
The ensuing knowledge was then expertly processed utilizing the astrophotography software program PixInsight, alongside Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to create a wealthy interstellar vista of swirling fuel clouds, and darkish, dusty filaments.
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“A favourite amongst astrophotographers, I needed to attempt it from a darkish sky space, and I used to be on the Texas Star Social gathering in April 2025,” stated Meyer in an e mail to Space.com discussing his commentary of Rho Ophiuchi. “This object was rising after midnight with the Milky Method, so [I] was in a position to get some good knowledge with my moveable rig for a number of clear nights.”
The Rho Ophiuchi nebula system is the closest star-forming area to Earth, and as such has come beneath the scrutiny of each the Hubble Area Telescope and the James Webb Area Telescope lately.
Brightest among the many stars captured in Meyer’s colourful portrait is the growing old pink big Antares, which may be discovered illuminating the fitting hand aspect of the cosmic vista. Above Antares close to the highest of the body is the well-known Messier 4 globular cluster, which is estimated to be dwelling to some 100,000 stellar our bodies, according to NASA. One other dense metropolis of stars designated NGC 6144 may be noticed to the higher left of Antares, whereas the intense stellar trio of Rho Ophiuchi B, C and D seem to light up the encompassing cloud construction on the high left of the picture.
As is sort of all the time the case when coping with deep sky objects, the totally different components comprising Meyer’s scene are nowhere close to as shut to at least one one other as they seem. For instance, NASA estimates that Rho Ophiuchi is positioned some 390 light-years from Earth, whereas Antares — which seems to be completely enveloped within the nebulous construction — is roughly 550 light-years away. Messier 4, in the meantime, is much more distant, sitting some 5,500 light-years from our planet.
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