Vikas Chander, taken from Río Hurtado, Chile
This complex of dust snaking through the southern constellation Apus the Bird of Paradise is catalogued as Mandel-Wilson 9 and more commonly called the South Celestial Serpent. It’s an example of galactic cirrus or an integrated flux nebula, lit dimly not by a single star or cluster but the overall glow of the Milky Way. The imager took 46⅓ hours of RGB exposure with a 6-inch f/3.3 scope.