Stars and Dust Across Corona Australis

This wide field telescopic vista is looking toward the constellation Corona Australis. The image is approximately 500 light years away and blocks many of the distant background stars of the Milky Way. The darkest part of the stellar dust is about 8 light years long. At the lower left part of the doark dust region lies the nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729 and IC 4812. The blue color is due to the high temperature of the stars and its reflection off the dust particles. About 30,000 light years beyond the interstellar dust cloud lies the zodiacal constellation Sagittarius.