The Devils Diamond

[strongmanmike]

Within the Rho Ophiuchus Nebula complex there is a faint but interesting bit of, mostly (Red) Halpha nebulosity, surrounding the bright blue giant star, Sigma Scorpii, which to my eye at least, makes it look like a bright diamond in Hell :wink2: I think there is a small amount of blue reflection nebulosity around SigScorpii but without a lot more blue data to make it stronger, it gets drowned out by the glare of Sigma Scorpii and the flood of red HII in the vicinity.

This was 13hrs of data from a total of nearly 14hrs collected across just two nights in late June, on long Winter solstice nights, both nights delivering clear, cool, calm and dry Moonless conditions :stargaze:.
Sub frame FWHM's were mostly in the 1.6" - 1.8" range with a few rising to 2.0"-2.2" early and later in the night, closer to the horizons.

AstroBin (https://www.astrobin.com/lyqoht/?force-classic-view&_ga=2.193684005.92056014.1752735788-1436762879.1751714703)

Pbase (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/175593036/original)

Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/strongman/54659833617/in/dateposted/)

Where is the Sigma Scorpii Nebula? (https://pbase.com/image/175620301?original) (location within my FSQ106+FLIProLine16803 wider field image)

A great two nights :)

Mike

[leon]

Wow :eyepop: that is some fine imaging indeed I don't understand all the technical stuff but obviously it has worked very well,;) beautiful stuff Michael :thumbsup:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

That’s wonderful Mike and shows a good eye for picking out gems from a myriad of colourful objects :thumbsup::)

[Startrek]

Mike,
Stunning images from the top of Australia
Love those long tight diffraction spikes from that 12” ( high end precision rig with super stable atmosphere…..oh and also experienced skilful astrophotographer )

Well done !!

Martone

[TrevorW]

Copy cat :) :) nah way better than mine

[Retrograde]

Very nice close-up, Mike!

Great contrast between the blue-white of Alniyat and the magenta of the nebula.

[AstroJason]

That's beautiful Mike. Having over 1000mm focal length must be really handy for framing your targets. Makes your images more unique when you have that extra reach. Nice colour contrast with blue Sigma Scorpi and the red/pink nebula!

[strongmanmike]

Thankyou Leon, nice to hear from you :hi: glad you like it :thumbsup:



Cheers Rodney, I saw a great version while judging the Astrophotography Prize in 2023 and thought, I must shoot that some time :)



Ah cheers Marty farty :) :thumbsup:glad you liked it.



No I liked your composition fitting in M4 too, was great :thumbsup:



That's exactly why I chose it as a target Pete :thumbsup:



Thanks Jason :thumbsup: Yeah 1120mm FL is not that long but luckily the 3.6 micron pixels provide a nice fine image scale of 0.68"/pix :)

Mike