Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  Extremely wide field
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Heart of the Scorpion from a snowy mountain in Wyoming June 1, 2014, Scott Denning
Heart of the Scorpion from a snowy mountain in Wyoming June 1, 2014
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Heart of the Scorpion from a snowy mountain in Wyoming June 1, 2014

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Description

There's still a lot of snow at our cabin, so had to hike in with snowshoes. Set up tripod and Vixen Polarie on top of a huge snowdrift at 10,500 feet from midnight to 2 AM to shoot Rho Ophiuchus and Antares with a modified Canon 40D and an EF 85 lens under very dark skies. Had a little trouble with polar alignment in the snow. Unfortunately clouds came and went every few minutes so had to grab subs here and there. Ultimately I only got 5 good subs through holes in the clouds, 3 minutes each. Took darks and flats the next morning and processed in PixInsight when I got home. For all the trouble, I'm reasonably pleased with the result.

This is an amazingly colorful patch of sky! Blue and yellow reflection nebulae, red H-a emission, colorful stars, and huge fingers of interstellar dust "reaching across" from the galactic core just to the east.

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Heart of the Scorpion from a snowy mountain in Wyoming June 1, 2014, Scott Denning