Cosmic dust clouds sprawl across a rich field of stars in this region the northern boundary of Corona Australis. Probably less than 500 light-years away and effectively blocking light from more distant, background stars in the Milky Way, the densest part of the dust cloud is about 8 light-years long. Magnificent globular star cluster NGC 6723 at the top of frame appears to be part of the group, but actually lies nearly 30,000 light-years away, far beyond the Corona Australis dust clouds.

The globular cluster is NGC6723. NGC 6726, NGC6727 and IC4812 are blue reflection nebulae, and NGC6729 surrounds the variable star R Corona Australis and varies in brightness with the star.