IC 4592 The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula

IC 4592 is a rarely photographed reflection nebula in the constellation Scorpius. It has a distinctive horsehead shape but is overwhelmingly overshadowed by another horsehead-shaped nebula - Barnard 33, "The Horsehead Nebula". The blue light comes from fine dust reflecting the light of nearby stars. In this case, much of the reflected light comes from the star at the eye of the horse called "Nu Scorpii". A second reflection nebula surrounding two stars is also visible to the right of the image, called IC 4601.

Another reason it is overlooked is perhaps its next-door neighbour - the spectacular Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex drawing most of the attention away.

(The original data was acquired from Telescope Live, which I processed using pixinsight and photoshop).

Recognition

This image was published in the Amateur Astrophotography Magazine Issue 108