There's no richer and more colourful area of the sky than this field encompassing the Galactic Center in Sagittarius at left and the constellation of Scorpius seen in full here at centre and at right. The Dark Horse prances at top with dark tendrils of dust r.eaching down to yellow Antares and the colourful emission and reflection nebulas of the Rho Ophuichi area.

Lots of Messier objects popular the field, from M24 (aka the Small Sagittarius Starcloud) flanked by the M23 and M25 clusters at upper left, down past M8 and M20 nebulas, the Lagoon and Trifid, and the pair of star clusters M6 and M7 above the tail of Scorpius. In the tail are the Cat's Paw Nebula, NGC 6334, and the False Comet area with the IC 4628 nebula. The Blue Horsehead, IC 4592, is at upper right off the head of Scorpius.

The Galactic Center is left of center in the dark bay above the M6 star cluster and below the bright Sagittarius Starcloud.

This is a stack of 6 x 2 minute exposures with the Canon RF 28-70mm lens at f/2 on the Canon Ra at ISO 800, on the AP400 mount. Shot on the morning of March 15, 2024 from the Warrumbungles Mountain Motel, near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia.