There is something haunting about the dark nebulae of the southern sky. This region in Vela is a cosmic battlefield of star formation. The black, "smoke-like" structures you see aren't empty space—they are actually massive clouds of dust so thick they block the light from billions of stars behind them.

I processed this using a mix of traditional LRGB and narrowband data (Ha & OIII) to bring out the glowing hydrogen gas that gives the background its red hue. It’s a glimpse into the raw materials of the universe.