Nebulae  Back to Photo Gallery - Nebulae
 Antares and Clouds 
Low Resolution            Mid Resolution            High Resolution

About:
Antares is a huge star. In a class called red supergiant, Antares is about 850 times the diameter of our own Sun, 15 times more massive, and 10,000 times brighter. Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius and one of the brighter stars in all the night sky. Located about 550 light years away, Antares is seen on the right surrounded by a yellowish nebula of gas which it has itself expelled. Radiation from Antares' blue stellar companion helps cause the nebular gas to glow. Far behind Antares, to the top right in the above image, is the globular star cloud M4. [Text adapted from APOD]



Optics: Takahashi FSQ-106EDXIII F/3.6 383mm. - APO Refractor
Mount: AP Mach1 GTO
Camera: QSI-683WSG
Filters: Astrodon E Series Gen II LRGB 31mm
Guiding Systems: SX Lodestar
Dates/Times: 11 May 2013 - 21/22 April 2015
Location: St. Bathelemy - Aosta / Pragelato - Turin - Italy
Exposure Details: L:R:G:B => 180:30:30:30 = > (36x5):(6x5):(6x5):(6x5) All Bin1 [num x minutes]
Cooling Details: -25 °C
Acquisition: Maxim DL/CCD, TheSkyX, Voyager
Processing: CCDStack2+, PixInsight, PS CS5
Mean FWHM: 2.78
SQM-L: 21.10 / 20.32