With smooth hues and wisps of dust, the night sky’s Antares region is a visual feast for astronomy connoisseurs.

Skywatchers Jay Ballauer and Phil Jones caught this view of the Antares region in the constellation Scorpius between June 1-2, 2005 as part of a nightly program led by Adam Block at Arizona’s Kitt Peak Observatory.

Ballauer and Jones used a Takahashi FSQ 106 mm telescope and a SBIG STL11000 CCD camera to take the two images that form this mosaic. The Rho Ophiuchi three star system appears at the upper right, with another triple star system, 22 Scorpi, sitting just above the star Antares itself near the center bottom. The globular cluster M4 can be seen just to the right of Antares.

Dust clouds the upper regions of the image, and is illuminated by starlight from within.

 [About the Kitt Peak Program]

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: Jay Ballauer/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF