In astrophotography, the night sky is ruled by seasons. As the Earth revolves around the sun, the night time side of our planet points out to different sections of space.

In the month of April, the night side of Earth begins to point towards the center of our galaxy, and the first object that signals the change of season rising in the east is Rho Ophiucu!

This is a short 8hr exposure image I captured of rho from the observatory here in Texas. This object is easily the most visually stunning in the entire night sky. And it doesn’t take much exposure time from dark skies to get something good!

Rho ophiuci itself is a collection of dust and reflection nebula very near to the solar system. Different colors of stars reflect different light through the dust.