This spectacular field encompasses some of the youngest and most transient objects to one of the oldest. NGC 6726 and NGC 6727, comprising the Ant Eater Nebula, are spectacular reflection nebulae in Corona Australis, that are the result of a few bright stars caught up in a large, dusty cloud.  They are part of the R CrA complex which is at about 500 light years, one of the nearest star-forming regions. NGC 6723 The Chandelier Globular Cluster is a 6.8 Magnitude object around 11 arcminutes in size, that lies nearly 30, 000 light-years away. Unlike common globular clusters, NGC 6723 has enhanced metallicity and a large fraction of younger stars, with primordial stars accounting for only around 0.4% of the total, yet with an age of around 13 billions years, it is also one of the oldest. Bernes 157, colloquially known as the Void of Nothingness, is a boomerang-shaped dark nebula that is 520 light years distant in Corona Australis that has so much tightly packed dust and gas that it totally obliterates the background stars. It extends far out beyond the right side of this image. Herbig–Haro Object 98, the strangely coloured glowing arc, is created by high-speed jets of gas and matter ejected away from the baby stars at velocities as high as one million kilometres per hour and  slamming into the surrounding gas and creating shock waves. Herbig–Haro Objects are transient phenomena, lasting not more than a few thousand years.

This was aquired in August 2021. I was expecting an early night for a change but instead the clouds cleared and the seeing was remarkably stable. Out of 64 images I only discarded 6 and one was because of Elon Musk's Starlink blazers. I have imaged this field with a DSLR and focal reduced 85 mm refractor many years ago now and I can highly recommend it as a  wide field target.

6 Jan 2024 Update

A horrible month of cloud and rain . That said, way better than getting burned out. I live in one the most high risk areas in NSW for bushfires. 201 houses got burnt out only a few Kms from me in 2013 and I moved in late 2018 just in time for the Black Summer bushfires. That had my phone issuing fire alerts multiple times a day for outbreaks within 10 kms so surviving 6 months while the worst fires in 5000 years raged around me with almost daily black outs and record smoke pollution was an experience I hope to avoid again.  Prepare for the worst, hope and for the best.

I have been revisiting old data with the GHS and Russell Croman's latest tools, plus using lightness masks created with ACDNR makes a huge difference so quite pleased with that. The difference between this and the original is amazing being exactly the same data. 

I look forward to next August and imaging it with the RedCat 71 and the ASI2600MM as the entire Void Of Nothingness really needs to be included.