Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  5 Oph  ·  IC 4603  ·  IC 4604  ·  The star ρ Oph  ·  rho Oph Nebula
Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud, Behnam Darvish
Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud
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Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud

Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud, Behnam Darvish
Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud
Powered byPixInsight

Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud

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Description

Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud (L1688 and part of L1689) and reflection nebulae IC4604 and IC4603. Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud is one of the closest star-forming regions to us. L1688 dark cloud is the densest and most active part of the region in terms of the star formation activity.
I imaged this region a while ago but was not happy with the outcome after several processing attempts. In particular, the noise level was too high for my taste. So, I decided to collect a few more hours over summer. However, I must have deleted the raw files of the extra data I obtained by accident (my bad!). Nonetheless, I decided to go with what I have so far. I was a bit generous in noise reduction and did a bit of smoothing during processing for the sake of getting a cleaner image so some fine details may have been sacrificed as a result. Also, my notes indicate that guiding was not good, with a guiding accuracy rms of ~1-1.5" overall. Hopefully, I will be able to take a couple more hours in a few months when this field becomes observable again in the morning.

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Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud, Behnam Darvish