With significant poetic liberty, I think this dynamic composition makes me wonder about the story of those clouds and their evolution - thus the title. How did it look 100.000 years ago? Or 10 million? To my eyes (and inferring mind), it looks as the "main" clouds are being "pushed" or "blowed" from the right hand side, and there are fainter and softer "background" clouds (especially visible in the lower left). But this could be a product of the topology and our vantage point.

This deep field centered in the bright star Beta Cha features some intruguing dust clouds, part of the Chamaeleon Molecular Cloud, locaed about 600 light years away. Nearby dust clouds such as the Chamaeleon Molecular Cloud, of which this image frames a small portion, are tools that astronomers use to uncover part of the tale of stars: how they form in those dense clouds.

This veils of dust are very rarely photographed - partly due to their faintness, due to the target’s extreme South declination (-71°), and due to the lack of images of the area: few people actually know about it! Astrophotographers usually favour the nearby bright Carina Nebula, and such obscure clouds are seldom imaged. In fact, this is the only image I know that was framed in this way, with Beta Cha right in the center: my goal was to create a dynamic composition, with the main dust cloud creating a diagonal line in the frame. The galaxy IC 3104 can be seen behind the dust clouds, a little to the right of center. 

This image was a great challenge, from acquisition to processing. The image was captured using relatively simple equipment (DSLR, 150mm newtonian and entry-level mount) from my dark site location, and features a total of 5.5h of exposure time. However, this target never rises much above the horizon (despite the -22° latitude, it is only 8 degrees away from the pole, thus never rising above 30°). The issue was further complicated by my local horizon being partly obstructed by trees: I had only a small window when the target was visible, a mere 2 degrees above the trees.

Processing was a real challenge, as the nebulosity is so faint, barely above the background brightness. This was made even more difficult due to some nights having imperfect flat-fielding: the small optical system (150/50mm mirrors + corrector) creates severe vignetting with the large full-frame sensor (in the extreme edges as high as 90%). I still couldn't track down the issue, but some of my 6D images simply do not calibrate well in the corners, an effect that looks similar to what John Hayes described with his CDK pre-upgrades. I suspect the cause is the same, non-linearity due to the extreme vignetting level. However, I could also have some sort of stray light, which I must investigate further. This effect only happens in a few cases, and in others it calibrates perfectly fine. The inconsistency and the need to setup/teardown the system each trip to my dark site (I have a proto-observatory pier, and I leave the equipment there during my stay for a few nights at a time, but when I'm not there I pack everything) makes it extremely hard to track down the problem!

The bright stars add a jewel-like appearence to the field, but their bright halos make processing a little harder. The halos can be reduced by minimizing scattered light, i.e.: flocking the inside of the OTA (which I did a few months after capturing this dataset). However, in this case, I think they even add an "eerie glow" to the image, which I find artistically beautiful. Overall, I am very pleased with how it turned out: an unique image of an obscure equally unique target. 

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

Dates: 21, 23 April, 2 May, 14 June 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: 83x240s. Total integration 332min or 5.5h.
Software: NINA, EQMOD, PHD2, MyFocuserPro (acquisition); APP, PI, PS (processing).

Note: If you liked this image, I strongly recommend checking the work around the region by Gerald Wechselberger (oldwexi) using remote telescopes; as well as wide field images shot by Hisayoshi Kato and an earlier wide field by yours truly: Musca to Chamaeleon