Great Rift around Mu Serpentis

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Mu Serpentis (μ Serpentis) is a blue giant star in the head of constellation Serpens (Serpens Caput) located about 160 light years away that shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 3.54.

Around this star there is a dense part of the Great Rift, a series of overlapping, molecular dust clouds that are located between the Solar System and the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Great Rift around Mu Serpentis

This is a feature little known by most and rarely imaged, yet very nice and with a rich texture. I imagined it quite a while ago with my usual setup (APO140 ota), with a classic LRGB composition collecting about 10 hours of light. Unfortunately I had to discharge several red subframes so the exposure in that channel is shorter than planned, however it seems it didn't effect much the final result..

I hope you will enjoy this vista. As usual the view at full resolution is highly recommended..

Clear skies
Marco

[Octane (Humayun)]

Absolutely stunning, my friend.

What a beautiful composition.

H

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by Octane

Absolutely stunning, my friend.

What a beautiful composition.

H

Thanks H, I love to look for these little known patches of sky, there is much to image out there that is a pity not giving any object a chance

Clear skies
Marco

[atalas]

Very nice Marco.

[RickS (Rick)]

A lovely image and another object well off the beaten track. Well done, Marco!

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

You keep finding these unusual and interesting targets. Nicely done as always.

Greg.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Great work Marco!:thumbsup :

Your the master of dust.

Always perfect colour and balance.
I know I try to keep in in as much dust as I can and that's due to your work.
I used to sweep it under the rug.

Cheers,

Justin.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by tilbrook@rbe.ne

I know I try to keep in in as much dust as I can and that's due to your work.
I used to sweep it under the rug.

...see what affect you have on people Marco

Really great image, the dust looks excellent

Mike

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Marco.

Great colours and composition.

Ross.

[IanP]

As usual from you Marco – truly outstanding !!!

[Shiraz (Ray)]

another outstanding image Marco - very interesting dusty vista.

[Regulus (Trevor)]

What they said Marco. Another well composed and processed image of great beauty. Thanks for sharing it.
Trev

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Sorry for this late reply, I have been quite busy lately and it was difficult to find some time to proper reply

Thanks to everybody for the appreciation, I also find these dusty areas very interesting and often too overlooked, the strong light from the giant Mu Ser gives the picture a nice appeal to me and bring life to the area otherwise too much mono-tone

Originally Posted by tilbrook@rbe.ne

Great work Marco!:thumbsup :

Your the master of dust.

Always perfect colour and balance.
I know I try to keep in in as much dust as I can and that's due to your work.
I used to sweep it under the rug.

Cheers,

Justin.

Happy I served you as inspiration Justin, great to know that you developed a little love for dust thanks to me

Clear skies
Marco

[Paul Haese]

I missed this one.

I really like all the dust and great colour. Detail is fabulous too.

I think you could gather some more data though. The back ground looks a little salt and pepper in the high res version. It is fairly minor but visible and really only my opinion in this. Great image all the same Marco.

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Thanks Paul, indeed a longer exposure would have improved the noise of the background, I had to stretch it quite a bit since this area is faint, perhaps I will dedicate same more luminance to the area next year..
I feel to be quite at the limit with my small aperture, on these faint areas every square cm added would be a great help

Clear skies
Marco

[Rex]

Amazing detail Marco, really nice!

[Andre27 (Andre)]

Fantastic image !!!

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

That's superb Marco, really wonderful image! The subtle hues of the dust form a nice contrast with the bright blue stars. Thanks for the view, I don't think I'll ever look at Serpens quite the same way now

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Really great image Marco, love the dark dust contrasting with the blue stars. I will look to try this object next season too!