Another chance alignment in the curve of the Scorpions tail. Zeta-1 Sco is dimmed by over 2 magnitudes by intervening dust clouds and is something like 40 times more distant than the orange Zeta-2 Sco. Zeta-2 Sco is an orange Class K giant, some 150 Light Years away. The fine Open Cluster, NGC 6231 lies just to the North of these stars.

If you look closely in about the 11 o'clock position above the main stars, you will see a fairly faint triple star, to the left of that is an orange star with a faint blob next to it, on the larger image this shows up, this is the faint Planetary Nebula, H1-3 or PNG 342.7+00.7, VMag of 17.33.

Prime focus of the Takahashi FS-128.