The Dark Scorpion in Taurus

I started working on this image of LBN 788, the Dark Scorpion in Taurus back in early February but didn’t manage to collect enough data until a week under dark skies finally gave me the chance. In total, this is 18 hours of integration with my Celestron RASA 8 and ASI 2600MC Duo, using both long and short exposures to capture faint dust while preserving star detail.

This dark nebula is part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, a vast region of gas and dust known for star formation. The dense filaments of LBN 788 obscure the background sky, with subtle hints of reflection and emission regions scattered throughout. While processing, I came across Herbig-Haro 31A/B, small jets from a young stellar object—an unexpected but cool discovery!

Processing was challenging due to faint structures and noise, but I opted for a balance between revealing the dust and keeping a natural look. I plan to revisit this target later in the year for a deeper version with even more data.