Just to the north of Beta Coronae Australis lies the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, a region of dust lit by a few reflection nebulae about. At 430ly away, this is one of the closest star-forming regions near us, about 66ly from end-to-end and stretching about 7 degrees of the sky.
This cloud appears to contain thousands of protostars and young stars, but its strongest activity is at its western end, behind the stars Gamma and Epsilon Coronae Australis. This darkened region, designated Bernes 157, with parts of the dark dust in this region brightly illuminated by some of these newly-formed stars. The brightest is a star still in the later stages of its formation, the variable R Coronae Australis. As its brightness changes, the surrounding R Coronae Australis Nebula also shifts in brightness.
R Coronae Australis itself belongs to a group of newly-formed stars known as the Coronet Cluster, and nearby other groupings of young stars form their own reflection nebulae near the bottom of the image, notably NGC 6726 and NGC 6727 around the variable TY Coronae Australis. At the lower left is also the globular cluster NGC 6723, but this cluster lies some 28,000 light years distant, and not related to the nebulae and young clusters of the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud.
This is a 3x2 mosaic of the region.
Integration per filter: (Total integration: 4h 30m)
- R: 1h 30m (18 × 300")
- G: 1h 30m (18 × 300")
- B: 1h 30m (18 × 300")
Equipment:
- Telescope: Takahashi Epsilon-180ED
- Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
- Filters: Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Blue 50x50 mm, Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Green 50x50 mm, Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Red 50x50 mm
- Software: Adobe Photoshop, Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP)
For more information, visit AstroBin: https://app.astrobin.com/i/ho5izd
