A rare clear but, cold night in country Victoria, Australia.
I was beset with a camera glitch when the ambient temp dropped; the FW randomly blocked the sensor. Then it seemed that the camera imaged happily enough when the temperature stabilized at 0 degrees. Anyway, although there was less data than I hoped, I'm happy with the resulting image.
Thanks again to my Astro buddy 'Blue' for hosting my scope on his rural property, and for his tech assistance & troubleshooting the camera issue.
(Text from APOD): In silhouette against a crowded star field toward the constellation Scorpius, this dusty cosmic cloud evokes the image of an ominous dark tower. In fact, clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing to form stars may well lurk within the dark nebula, a structure that spans almost 40 light-years across. Known as a cometary globule, the swept-back cloud, extending from the lower left to the head (top of the tower) right and above centre, is shaped by intense ultraviolet radiation from the OB association of very hot stars in NGC 6231, off the right edge of the scene. That energetic ultraviolet light also powers the globule's bordering reddish glow of hydrogen gas. Hot stars embedded in the dust can be seen as bluish reflection nebulae. This dark tower, NGC 6231, and associated nebulae are about 5,000 light-years away.
Comments