Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scorpius (Sco)  ·  Contains:  10 Sco)  ·  10 ome02 Sco  ·  12.23  ·  13.24  ·  13.31  ·  14 Sco)  ·  14 nu. Sco  ·  14.51  ·  14.88  ·  15.53  ·  266 Aline  ·  393 Lampetia  ·  4 Oph  ·  4 Vesta  ·  4 psi Oph  ·  40 Harmonia  ·  455 Bruchsalia  ·  7 Oph  ·  7 chi Oph  ·  713 Luscinia  ·  8 Sco A)  ·  8 Sco B  ·  8 bet01 Sco  ·  8.09  ·  80 Sappho  ·  9 Oph  ·  9 Sco)  ·  9 ome Oph  ·  9 ome01 Sco  ·  Akrab (β1 Sco  ·  And 198 more.
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Blue Horsehead Nebula Mosaic, Darius Kopriva
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Blue Horsehead Nebula Mosaic

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Blue Horsehead Nebula Mosaic, Darius Kopriva
Powered byPixInsight

Blue Horsehead Nebula Mosaic

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Description

This is a four panel mosaic of the blue horsehead Nebula.

Do you recognize the Horse's Head? This is not the famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion, but a rather pale nebula that takes on a familiar shape only on long exposures. The main part of the molecular cloud complex pictured here is a reflection nebula, cataloged as IC 4592.

Reflection nebulae are composed of very fine dust that normally appears dark, but they can appear quite blue when they reflect light from energetic nearby stars. In this case, much of the reflected light comes from a star in the eye of the horse. This star is part of ν Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems in the constellation Scorpius. A second reflection nebula, designated IC 4601, surrounds two stars to the right of the center of the image.

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Blue Horsehead Nebula Mosaic, Darius Kopriva

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Southern Hemisphere Astro