The constellations of Scorpius and Ophiuchus offer unique color magic in the night sky. The colors come from a mixture of gas and dust. Dust, which is illuminated by starlight and produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds that produce reddish emission nebulae when their atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight. Dust clouds that are illuminated from behind, obscuring the starlight and appearing dark.
At the bottom right is the bright Milky Way, in which billions of stars merge to form a white band. Interspersed with red glowing hydrogen clouds, such as the Cat’s Paw and Lobster Nebula. Then, in the center of the image around the star Antares, a blue glowing nebula, as well as yellow and red emission nebulae. Further to the left is the blue Horsehead Nebula. And the left part of the image is dominated by a nameless, large red nebula. And in between there are always veils of dark dust clouds. Of course, there are also countless stars, but they only emerge when you zoom in. The original 150 megapixel panoramic image is a mosaic of 3 x 3 elements, taken with support of DeepSkySafaris in Rooisand, Namibia. It is about 42° x 27° in size, our moon fits into the image about 5000 times.