Lavender Fox

Year: 2019
Medium: C-type print
Dimensions: 30H x 20W in | 45H x 30W in | 60H x 40W in
Original Artwork Price: $2,500 | $3,500 | $6,500 (framed)

"About 2,700 light years from Earth, in the constellation Monoceros, is the Fox Fur Nebula, named for its resemblance to a soft, wispy fox stole. This wide view of the region shows a flowing, stretching pattern in the dust and gases surrounding the Fox Fur giving the image a sense of motion. The warm, tawny golden brown colored areas are space dust mixed with glowing hydrogen and sulfur gas. The lavender color is a mixture of oxygen and sulfur gas that appears to be flowing into the central area of the nebula. The soft blue region near the center of the image is a cluster of newly ignited stars glowing through the surrounding dust.

This image was two years in the making. The smoke from nearby wildfires in Fall and early Winter of 2021 prevented me from collecting high-quality exposures. A few days into 2022, the smoke moved to the east and I was able to collect more than 27 hours of very high-quality exposures.”- Gary Lopez