Antares – Rho Ophiuchi Complex

This is one of my favorite areas of the sky and I first fell in love with the rich variation of color and texture after seeing an image taken by Akira Fuji.  Ever since then, It’s been high on my list of areas I’d like to image.  Unfortunately, it’s also rather difficult to do that from the northeast US and here in Brooklyn, well you can  “fuggedaboutit.”[1]

This image is about 40 minutes of composite exposure (10 x 4 minutes).

Our annual trip to the Berkshires, in western Massachusetts doesn’t really help.  From there, Scorpius is even lower in the sky than it is here in NYC and sky glow from Springfield and Pittsfield spoils the southern sky.  I’ve also tried from a site to which I have access near Narrowsburg, NY, but the low altitude and nearby towns makes it difficult.

However, this year our trip to Missouri overlapped the new moon in June and my sister’s home south of Piedmont, MO has nothing to the south for a long ways.  It doesn’t hurt that she’s also a couple of degrees further south compared to NYC.

Things didn’t work out completely okay as the AstroTrac decided to “slip” halfway through an exposure sequence (and while I was catnapping in the car), so I had to throw out over 20 minutes of exposure time and reframe for a second sequence to try to get more.  Still, its the best I’ve been able to do and it shows promise.  Next year….

[1] For those of you who do not live in Brooklyn, that is a “Brooklyn
accented” version of “forget about it” which can be found on the road
sign as you leave Brooklyn where it says “Leaving Brooklyn?
Fuggedaboutit!”.