This region near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi is rich and varied. There are both emission and reflection nebulae present as well as the dark nebula B42 near Rho Ophiuchi itself. Two globular clusters are visible, the bright M4 (Cat's Eye) and the fainter NGC 6144. The color variations are also tremendous. This image does not have enough exposure time to fully bring out the range of colors from the (very faint in this image) deep red near Al Niyat (the star above Antares) to the bluish haze surrounding Rho Ophiuchi to the warmer yellow-orange around Antares, I've always been fascinated by the range of colors.
This is a 40 minutes composite exposure (10 x 4 minutes) aligned and averaged in Maxim DL 5 with post processing done with Picture Window Pro 5.
