I have always loved the amazing variety in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. It has blue reflection nebula, red emission nebula, dusty dark nebula and two globular clusters. My previous attempt at this region left me wanting more and was the inspiration for this project.

I took this four panel mosaic over four night ranging from late March to late May 2019. It is produced from the 538 exposures I decided to keep. This is my first attempt producing a mosaic and I am very happy with the results. I used the "synthetic star field" approach described in David Ault's Trapped Photons blog: http://trappedphotons.com/blog/?p=994.

This is also my first significant project with a new small telescope, the Sky-Watcher EvoGuide 50mm APO paired with the Starizona EvoFF field flattener. I have been looking for a wide field lens and tried this combination after less then stellar results with a Rokinon 135. I am very happy with the flatness of the EvoGuide, EvoFF combination. Kudos to Sky-Watcher and Starizona for producing a high quality, moderately priced, wide field instrument.