Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scorpius (Sco)  ·  Contains:  34 Sco)  ·  35 Sco)  ·  Butterfly Cluster  ·  Lesuth (υ Sco  ·  M 6  ·  M 7  ·  NGC 6334  ·  NGC 6405  ·  NGC 6475  ·  Ptolemy's Cluster  ·  The star Fuyue (G Sco)  ·  The star Lesath  ·  The star Shaula (λ Sco
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From the Sting of the Scorpion to the Center of the Galaxy in 42 minutes (Reprocessed + BX v2), Mau_Bard
From the Sting of the Scorpion to the Center of the Galaxy in 42 minutes (Reprocessed + BX v2), Mau_Bard

From the Sting of the Scorpion to the Center of the Galaxy in 42 minutes (Reprocessed + BX v2)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
From the Sting of the Scorpion to the Center of the Galaxy in 42 minutes (Reprocessed + BX v2), Mau_Bard
From the Sting of the Scorpion to the Center of the Galaxy in 42 minutes (Reprocessed + BX v2), Mau_Bard

From the Sting of the Scorpion to the Center of the Galaxy in 42 minutes (Reprocessed + BX v2)

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Description

I had this summer the opportunity to frame this picture from a Bortle 4 location close to Bonifacio, in the south of Corsica using my portable rig, including a Samyang135, SA_GTI and a Manfrotto tripod. It was a bit too late in the season, and the sky was obstructed by a tree, nevertheless I managed to have the target clear for 42 minutes, enough for an f/2 to get a watchable image.
Update December 2023: I reprocessed the master light using the new version of BlurXterminator, that corrected the Samyang coma exceptionally well. The overall processing has been adjusted to produce a more precise and hopefully natural image.

The field covers the area between the sting of Scorpio (the two blue stars at the bottom) and the galactic center, placed just outside the image, above Sh2-15.

So many famous objects are covered by this picture: from M6 and M7 to the popular "War and Peace" and "Cat's Paw" Nebulae. I would like instead to point your attention on two less evident but extremely interesting objects that are the "Bug" Nebula Sh2-6 , that is the little speck in the low-right corner (see in contrast the overwhelming Hubble picture below) and the Globular Cluster NGC6441 which, following its orbit, is currently crossing the galactic plane. NGC6441 is so close to the star G Sco, that they together look like a double star (bottom left of the image).

Lastly, the asteroids Aurora, Liguria and Felicitas have also been captured in the picture.

The detailed info that follows has been excerpted from galaxymap.org, wikipedia.com and the picture from NASA APOD.

Sh2-6
Also called: NGC6302, RCW 124, Gum 60
This is NGC 6302, the Bug nebula, the remains of a dying G V class star. You can see an amazing Hubble image of this planetary nebula in Picture 1 below.

NGC6441
NGC 6441 is a globular cluster in the southern constellation of Scorpius. It was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on May 13, 1826. The cluster is located 5 arc minutes east-northeast of the star G Scorpii, and is some 43,000 light-years from the Sun.
This is one of the most massive and luminous globular clusters in the Milky Way, with an estimated 1.6 million solar masses of stars. It is located in the bulge of the galaxy at a distance of 13000 ly from the core, and is considered metal "rich".  The cluster has a half-light radius of 7.1 ly.
Among other peculiarities, the cluster contains a planetary nebula, JaFu 2, one of only four planetary nebulas known to inhabit globular clusters in the Milky Way.

Sh2-13
Also called RCW 133, Gum 68
This nebula surrounds the O9.5V binary HD 158186, which lies in the direction of the small cluster Antalova 1.

Sh2-15
Also called RCW 134, Gum 69, W25
This HII region is ionised by the O8 V star HD 161853 and is part of the Sh 2-15 to Sh 2-20 complex of HII regions located in the Sgr OB5 association in the Sagittarius arm. It is the location of the radio source W25.

Sh2-12
This diffuse nebula is ionised by the binary O-star (O7V + O7V) HD 159176 in the star cluster NGC 6383.

Sh2-11 NGC 6357
The HII region NGC 6357, also called W 22 or the War and Peace Nebula, is ionised by the Pismis 24 and AH03 J1725−34.4 star clusters. Pismis 24 includes the multiple O4 and O4-5 star system [N78] 35 according to a 1984 paper. (SIMBAD gives a cooler O7 III class for this star.)
Near by is the Wolf-Rayet star WR 93, which is also a multiple star system with a class O7-9 companion.
The Cat's Paw nebula NGC 6334 lies at approximately the same distance and is separated from it by a dark cloud.

Sh2-8 NGC 6334
Also called RCW 127
This is NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw nebula. This complex of HII regions contains one larger bubble (Gum 63) adjacent to three smaller bubbles (Gum 61, Gum 62 and Gum 64b) in addition to several other partially obscured nebulae and at least eleven major infrared sources that are probably mostly cooler B stars. It lies at the same distance as NGC 6357, the War and Peace nebula, and is separated from it by a dark cloud. Both are near the Sco OB4 association in the Sagittarius arm.

M7
Also designated NGC 6475 and sometimes known as the Ptolemy Cluster, is an open cluster of stars. The cluster is easily detectable with the naked eye, close to the "stinger" of Scorpius. With a declination of −34.8°, it is the southernmost Messier object.
M7 has been known since antiquity; it was first recorded by the 2nd-century Greek-Roman astronomer Ptolemy, who described it as a nebula in 130 AD. Italian astronomer Giovanni Batista Hodierna observed it before 1654 and counted 30 stars in it. In 1764, French astronomer Charles Messier catalogued the cluster as the seventh member in his list of comet-like objects. It is located some 980 ly away with a radius of 25 ly. Its age is 200 million years.
As of January 2022, Messier 7 is one of the few remaining Messier objects not photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, mainly due to objects' large angular diameter or lack of scientific significance.

M6
The Butterfly Cluster NGC 6405 is an open cluster.
The first astronomer to record the Butterfly Cluster's existence was Giovanni Battista Hodierna in 1654. However, Robert Burnham Jr. has proposed that the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy may have seen it with the naked eye while observing its neighbor the Ptolemy Cluster M7.
Estimates of the Butterfly Cluster's distance are around 1600 ly giving it a spatial dimension of some 12 light years. It is estimated to be 94.2 million years old. Cluster members show a slightly higher metallicity compared to the Sun.
As per M7 as of January 2022 M6 is one of the few  Messier objects to not have been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Picture1: Hubble Image of NGC 6302, the Bug Nebula. NASA APOD 5th May 2004.Credit: A. Zijlstra (UMIST) et al., ESA, NASA

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