RHO OPHIUCHI

The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue light from the Rho Ophiuchi star system and nearby stars reflects more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue for the same reason. The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emissions from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares - knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark brown regions are caused by dust grains - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, well in front of the globular cluster M4, are even more colorful than humans can see - the clouds emit light in every wavelength band from the radio to the gamma-ray.

May 29, 2022

My original plan was to go to Joshua Tree National Park on Sunday for Milky Way nightscape/DSO because I would be off work on Monday, Memorial Day. Then I noticed a post on Instagram by the official Joshua Tree National Park account mentioning the Elk Fire began on May 26 near the northwest corner of the park and the town of Yucca Valley.

We changed our plan to go to Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark for DSO instead. Our goal was to image Rho Ophiuchi near the Milky Way core. When I checked the weather forecast for Amboy, there were warnings about wind and a nearby dust storm.

We changed our plan again to visit Red Rock Canyon State Park, which would be a 3 hour's drive. We left around 2 PM to give us enough time to arrive at the park to scout around as it would be our first time visiting. We stopped by Carl's Jr in Landcaster to take a break and grab some food for dinner. When we arrived at Red Rock Canyon and looked around, we found higher rock formations than expected. After driving around for a bit, we decided it wouldn't work because Rho Ophiuchi would be low in the sky. We sat in the car thinking about our alternatives. Then we both had the same thought. Alabama Hills is only about one hour away, and we are familiar with Alabama Hills.

Back on the road for another hour! Once we arrived at Alabama Hills, we drove around to find a good spot where the mountains would not obstruct Rho Ophiuchi too much. Once we decided on a location and parked, we at our dinner before setting up the gear.

As I set up my gear and started to plug in the cables, I noticed that I was missing the power cable for the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro. I left the power cable at home. Luckily, I also had my iOptron SkyGuider Pro as my backup. Since the setup I was using wasn't too heavy, the SkyGuider Pro would be fine. We relaxed and waited for the sky to get dark enough to polar align.

Rho Ophiuchi is near the Milky Way core.