I had always been inspired by the beauty of deep space and images showing cosmic clouds and interstellar dust clouds. I never imagined I would be able to capture such an image with the most basic equipment, this is my longest integration of any image and my most detailed rendition of any space object/objects and it is really an honor to present you such an image.
My recent trip to the bortle 1 skies of the desert of Bela, Balochistan was a memorable one as not only it gave me an experience of the darkest skies of Pakistan but also gave me such wonderful views of the deep cosmos. The desert and sand of Bela beneath us and cosmic dust and clouds overhead was a combination that was awe inspiring and unfathomable. I am glad that I went for this target as it had so much detail hidden in plain sight.
An astronomical conjunction including the Pleaides star cluster, California Nebula and planet Mars. The distance from California nebula to the Pleiades star cluster would cover just over 12 degrees across our night sky. This deep and wide field  image of the region explores the cosmic landscape's dusty nebulae and colors otherwise too faint for our eyes to see. On the left, cataloged as NGC 1499, the California Nebula does have a familiar shape, though its coastline is actually over 60 light-years long and lies about 1,500 light-years away. The nebula's pronounced reddish glow is from hydrogen atoms ionized by luminous blue star Xi Persei seen just to its right. At the top right, the famous Pleiades star cluster is some 400 light-years distant and around 15 light-years across. Its spectacular blue color is due to the reflection of starlight by interstellar dust. In between are hot stars of the Perseus OB2 association and dusty, dark nebulae along the edge of the nearby, massive Perseus molecular cloud and Taurus molecular cloud complex extending towards the center bottom of the image. Planet Mars can be seen with diffuse glow due to long exposure and was at opposition on 12th January in 2023 and will come back at opposition in Jan 2025.

Adeel Shafiq ©️