Rho Ophiuchi the eye of the Scorpion

Great image Peter! I am so pleased you got to process this image... It is a great area of the sky. Simon

thank you Simon

Wow, wow, wow. For me the pick of the 3 fantastic photos I've seen so far. I didn't expect to see anything better than had already been posted. I believe it partly came from the passion you have for this part of space.
I always preferred a 2012 picture published by APOD to many others I've seen, only my irrelevant personal choice so's not to offend anyone, anyway this improves upon it so much. A lens available used at under £1,000!

I hope maybe you'd submit it to a magazine, but if it came to an award in a competition I fear it would unjustly lose out due to the new style of judging. I'm just an old, sorry really old fuddy duddy that is impressed by the skills in processing these wonderful objects in space. Seeing the same object replicated umpteen times in different colours is skilful but not something that actually exists. Partly my reason for cancelling a subscription. Must stop my rant now. 
Rare for you to post anything Peter, how about a few more. They don't have to be quite the same standard. 

Best regards, Ray 
Nearly forgot. Many thanks for your reply to my questions on camera gain. Good explanation and I'll act on it accordingly. 

Thank you Ray you are very kind, ....I have been just so busy with general maintenance of the scopes that  I haven't have a lot of time for processing my my own stuff....now we are getting to the bottom of all the little niggles and getting all the systems  stable I am hoping I will have more time to do more of my own processing .....I have wanted to do this one since the first time I saw it in an old magazine over 30years back. I even made a special trip a few years back to La Palma to image it...as epic as the trip was unfortunately I had equipment failure and never managed to get it......So  I said to Steve I've just got to get it done this year and hopefully make a good job of it.  It is actually still quite tricky from here as it sits quite low in the sky.
Thank you again

Hi Peter, 
You're very welcome, and it's great to hear that it's only been through lack of time that you haven't posted more.
You didn't say but that time 30 years ago that you mentioned, I assume your parents gave you an astronomy magazine with pretty pictures in for you to look at while in your playpen.  
Regards. Ray

You are very kind Ray,  I  was around 19 years old when I saw it I think it was the old US  Astronomy magazine...everything seemed so unreachable back then...things have move on so fast.

Absolutely stunning Peter!

Regards

Mark

Thank you Mark

Awesome image Peter.
And that the object is quite low in the sky doesn"t matter as your image proved.
The sky quality in Fregenal is awesome.
I have seen it by myself in 2018.
I was very impressed to see the milkyway in all it's splendor for the very first time in my life.

Best regards,
Mike

Awesome image Peter.
And that the object is quite low in the sky doesn"t matter as your image proved.
The sky quality in Fregenal is awesome.
I have seen it by myself in 2018.
I was very impressed to see the milkyway in all it's splendor for the very first time in my life.

Best regards,
Mike

Thank you Mike. No it doesnt get very high up. It helps that P4 has such a short focal length it is less effected by the seeing low down. That said with such a wide field of view is more effected by sky gradients which make it more of a challenge to process.
As you know and have experienced the skies at Fregenal, they are just simply breathtaking, other than the number of clear nights and quality of the darks skies the location allows us to be able to get some of those more Southerly objects like Rho.....I think next time it comes around we will have to look at its close neighbour 'The Blue Horse Head' P4 is just perfect for objects like that.
Peter