South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628.
Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, radiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms.
The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow.
At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250 light-years across. The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum,
but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as The Prawn Nebula.(NASA)

The open star cluster NGC 6242 can be seen at left.

Imaged with the Boren-Simon 8" F2.8 POWERNEWT Astrograph.
SBIG ST8300M with FW5 filterwheel with BAADER HaLRGB filters
LRGB with 70 min LUM and 8 min for each color (BIN 2x2)
Total of 94 minutes.

Imaged from Tivoli farm in Namibia June 2011