A Werewolf in Scorpius

[MarsG76]

Hi all,
Sharing with you my last processed image as I'm slowly going through my aquired data from the last month.

This section of sky, located in the constellation of Scorpius near the star Zeta Scorpii, and looks like a silhouette of a wolf or a werewolf creature in long exposure photographs hidden in faint nebulosity. This nebula is known as the Wolf Nebula or the Fenrir Nebula from Norse mythology but officially known as SL 17 and lies very close to GUM 55 and "The Dark Tower" in Scorpius and not a popular object among amateur astronomers. 

The dark nebula region in the photo is a type of dense interstellar cloud and dust in space that obscures the light from the background stars creating the shape of the "Wolf". The reddish sections are Hydrogen Alpha emissions, populated by many stars of differing types and colors as seen in the photo.

I exposed this photo across multiple nights, from 18th - 23rd June 2023, from my backyard that is under a Bortle 4 semi rural sky through a C8 SCT at f6.3 using a QHY268M astronomy camera.
The total integration time was 23 Hours and 34 minutes in HAlpha, SII and OIII Narrowband for the nebulosity and through RGB filters for the star colors.

Clear Skies,
MG

Edited June 28, 2023 by MarsG76