The heart of the Rho Ophiuchi

The Rho Ophiuchi (pronounced ‘oh-fee-yoo-ki’) is a rich and colourful star forming region that contains red emission nebula, blue reflection nebula, vast dust lanes, views of globular clusters, and the red supergiant star Antares.

Captured from an observatory located in the southern part of the Atacama Desert, Chile, this final image is the result of stacking over 50 individual images for a total exposure time of 4.5 hours.