Blue Horsey

Here is an image of a wonderful reflection nebula in Scorpius. It is called IC 4592, but I like to think of it as a horse. I really love this object. It is faint, but very large. In fact, I'm just catching a piece of it.

The clouds of dust are being illuminated by the star that makes up the horse's "eye". Reflection nebulae typically have a blue color because as light scatters through the dust it shifts to the blue end of the visual spectrum (the same reason our daytime sky is blue).

I took this image at the Texas Star Party (yes, I was busy at the TSP)!

Stats:

FSQ 106ED f/5
QHY8 camera
9 x 15 min
Maxim, CS3