Plunging into a cosmic watercolour

Starting with a wide view of the central part of our Milky Way galaxy we zoom in on the tiny constellation of Corona Australis (the Southern Crown), located beside the larger constellation of Sagittarius and towards the centre of our own galaxy. Zooming in more closely this faint constellation, visible only from dark sites, reveals many interesting features including a spectacular dust cloud about 8 light-years across. The bluish fuzzy spot is a beautiful reflection nebula in the star-forming region around the star R Coronae Australis, captured in great detail by the Wide Field Imager (WFI), on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.