The area around Antares and Rho Ophiuchi is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful regions in the sky, dotted with many nebulae and their different colors.

The brightest star in the image is the star Antares, and with its orange color it illuminates the nebula around it, which shines in the same color as the star and is called the Antares nebula.

Antares is also a much more massive star than our Sun, and has a much larger diameter.

Its mass is between 11 and 16 times that of the Sun, but its diameter is 680 times larger! Making it a red supergiant.

The bright blue region above the star Antares is the Rho Ophiuchi nebula, which is illuminated by the triple star Rho Ophiuchi, while at the top of the image is the Blue Horsehead nebula, which is about 400 light-years away.

There is also a globular cluster called M 4 next to the star Antares, which is much further away than Antares itself, a whopping 7,200 light years! There are at least 43 variable stars in this cluster, and under good conditions, this cluster is easily visible to the naked eye.

Antares is 291 light-years away from us, and Rho Ophiuchi is over 520 light-years away.