Polish astrophotographer Ireneusz Nowak has been named the author of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. His photograph shows a fragment of the Milky Way and the Zeta and Rho Ophiuchi nebulae. The picture was taken in the Republic of South Africa.
The photograph by the Polish author was selected APOD NASA (Astronomy Picture of the Day) on May 27.
In addition to a fragment of the Milky Way and two nebulae, the photograph, which looks like a colourful, abstract painting, shows the bright star Antares, the globular star cluster M4, and the nebula IC 4592, also known as the Blue Horsehead. The red light in the photograph comes from the nebulae in the glow of excited hydrogen, while the blue colour is interstellar dust that reflects the light of bright young stars.
'The photo was taken during an astrophotography trip to one of the farms in the tourist region of Waterberg in South Africa. In total, it consists of 14 frames and covers a fairly significant part of the sky. Obtaining the final effect required several days of photography and took about 2 months of work, with breaks, devoted to processing the collected material to obtain the final effect', Ireneusz Nowak reports for PAP.
The Zeta and Rho Ophiuchi nebulae are among the most frequently photographed fragments of the sky. Zeta Ophiuchi and Rho Ophiuchi are stars in the Ophiuchus constellation; the nebulae in their vicinity also bear the same names. The Zeta Ophiuchi nebula is a powerful field of ionised and red-glowing hydrogen; Rho Ophiuchi is a dark dust and gas nebula.
'Rho Ophiuchi and the entire region are very popular because they are an amazing composition of all possible objects and colours that we can come across in astrophotography. There are countless dust nebulae there, which appear in the photo both in brown, and often in colours they take from the stars that illuminate them - orange, yellow, blue. In addition, there is red from hydrogen emission nebulae, and fragments of the Milky Way. The whole thing forms an incredibly colourful composition that looks like a painted picture, not like an object created by nature', the astrophotographer describes.
Photographs by Polish authors relatively often receive the APOD NASA title. Recently, these authors were: Marzena Rogozińska (May 20), Wioleta Gorecka (March 30) and Włodzimierz Bubak (December 28, 2024). In turn, Marcin Rosadziński, whose pictures were Astronomy Pictures of the Day three times, was recently recognized as the Milky Way Photographer of the Year 2025by the international group of professional astrophotographers Capture the Atlas.
'Maybe it is not a Polish specialty, but we simply have a group of people without complexes, with an open mind and growing skills, ready to travel to interesting places and spend many evenings to achieve a dream photo. Watching the photos by colleagues in various groups, you can see the constantly increasing level of work and the hunger for obtaining more and more beautiful frames', Ireneusz Nowak comments.
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website has been run by NASA since 1995. One photo of astronomical objects or astrolandscape is published every day. Having a photograph published on this website is a great distinction for astrophotographers. (PAP)
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