At the top of the picture is the star Rho Ophiuchi. It and its un-named companion lower in the frame lie at the edge of a cloud of dust, drifting between the stars. Their light is reflected from the minute grains, special photographic techniques revealing a delicate layered structure within a hazy boundary, known as IC 4603–04.

Both images are to the same scale and were made from the same UK Schmidt Telescope photographic plate, taken in blue light in June 1974. At left is the image copied through an unsharp mask made to emphasise the fine detail, while the same process was repeated on the right, using a different unsharp mask to reveal coarser structures.