The tale of the universe is tightly bonded to the life of stars. Their life begins in clouds of gas and dust, such as the one shown in this image. Millions of years later, within their cores, the very chemical elements that make the world around us will be forged, including the device you are reading this on (and your eyes as well). And in an obscure corner, some of that starstuff look back, and marvel at the intriguing shapes those clouds make. In this case, I present the stunning region of the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, in a deep and wide telescopic view, some 10-degree across. 

Because of its proximity to the Solar System, the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud (and associated stars) are extensively studied by astronomers across the wavelength spectrum. The distance to the nebula, or more specifically to R CrA dates back to Edwin Hubble, who estimated it at the order of 100 parsecs in 1921. Gaposchkin and Greenstein reported it at likely 150 ± 50 pc in 1936. More recent estimates put it at 149.4 ± 0.4 parsec (Galli et al., 2020), or about 500 light years. 

Between the dust, stars shine in the main star-forming region near NGC 6726-27. It features some very interesting objects: reflection nebulae, with the characteristic blue color; the variable R CrA and its associated yellowish variable nebula NGC 6729; several Herbig-Haro objects only resolved with larger optics and subject to scientific research, and a lot of very faint dust that stretches from the “main” nebula towards the East. The globular cluster NGC 6523, although appearing to be in the same plane as the nebulae, is only juxtaposed from our point of view, lying much further at 28000 light years away.
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Corona Australis fascinates me since I first started in my astrophotography journey. The subtlety of colour, faint dust and the overall shape, that appears to be “blown” from the West are beautiful. I had previously captured the entire main part of the molecular cloud in widefield framings, and I also had imaged the central NGC6726 region with the telescope before. However, I wanted to capture a wider field with the level of resolution and deepness that the telescope system allows. So, this image is result of a 6-panel panorama, shot during several nights from my dark site during 2021’s winter season, totalizing 6.6h integration time. 

My goal when processing was to keep a natural look, and letting the data speak for itself. I wanted to emphasize the faint dust, while keeping the overall balance and preventing the dense starfield to become overwhelming. Final full-size image is 84.6MP (@1.88”/px), presented here on a more manageable resize. I am very pleased with the result, which I can say if my final version of this target... at least until a significant integration time or technology (equipment) upgrade happens. I consider this among my best telescope images ;) 

Constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome in the comments section! 

Dates: 29 July 2021, 1 and 9 August 2021
Location: My Observatory, MG, Brazil. Rural Skies (Bortle 3, calculated SQM ~21.6)
Camera: Canon EOS 6D (mod) at ISO 1600
Optics: 150/750mm ATM Newtonian Telescope (optics by Sandro Coletti) + TS-Optics MaxField 2" Coma Corrector
Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5, tracking, guiding
Exposure Detail: 6-panel (2x3) mosaic, each 12 to 18x240s. Total integration 99x4min or 6.6h.
Software: NINA, EQMOD, PHD2, MyFocuserPro (acquisition); APP, PI, PS (processing). 

Note: I strongly recommend checking out the inspiring work on this target by David Malin, Fabian Neyer, Mario Cogo, Wei-Hao Wang and Hisayoshi Kato.