IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula (Joe Niemeyer)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph) · Contains: IC 4604 · The star ρOph · rho Oph Nebula

IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula, Joe Niemeyer

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IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

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IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

The Rho Ophiuchus Nebula (IC 4604) is a beautiful blue reflection nebula located in the constellation Ophiuchus. The nebula consists of colorful cosmic dust and gas illuminated by the bright star Rho Ophiuchi and its companion. Rho Ophiuchi appears to be a triple star system but is actually a binary with the third star (left) being about 1.6 Trillion miles farther away. The gases in the cloud consist of mostly molecular hydrogen, helium, and carbon monoxide. The color is due the fact that the size of the dust particles in the nebula is about equal to the wavelength of blue light, hence the blue spectra from the nearby stars is scattered more efficiently. This nebula is located just 460 light-years from Earth and believed to be our closest star forming region. Eventually all this dust and gas will coalesce and form about 3,000 new stars.

I made this image from a stack of thirty 300-second exposures shot at 1630mm focal length, calibrated with 20 each dark, flat, and dark flat frames, then post-processed with Photoshop and DeNoise AI.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
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Amateur hosting facility
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Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4722592
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

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Image Index:

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IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

IC4604 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

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