DECam captures detailed image of NGC 6729 nebula and NGC 6723 star cluster

The Department of Energy’s Dark Energy Camera (DECam) has released a 570‑megapixel image that evokes the swirling sky of Van Gogh’s *The Starry Night*. The photograph, captured with the camera mounted on the 4‑meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter‑American Observatory in Chile, showcases a vibrant patch of the southern Milky Way.

In the composition the glowing reflection nebula NGC 6729 appears on the left, while the dense globular star cluster NGC 6723 dominates the right side. DECam, a flagship instrument of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab program, was originally built to map the distribution of dark energy, but its high‑resolution sensor also produces striking astronomical imagery that highlights the structure and beauty of nearby stellar objects.

The new image illustrates the capabilities of modern survey telescopes and provides a detailed visual record of a region of the sky that is both scientifically valuable and artistically compelling.