“Ceci n'est pas une pipe”, French for "This is not a pipe" was written by René Magritte on his wonderful famous painting “La Trahison des images”. However, this beautiful nebula certainly does resemble a pipe! Its darkness is striking in the bright Milky Way’s bulge, high up in the Southern winter night skies.

We humans have always wondered and imagined figures up in the skies. When we look up at the sky, we can see humanity’s own reflection as well – our history, culture and beliefs projected onto the heavens. From the Greek gods, the scientific instruments of the 19th century, the Emu of Australian aborigines, the tapir (“anta”) of Brazilian indigenous people... and also the dark Pipe. Carl Sagan’s Cosmos puts it in a beautiful way: “These pictures are not, of course, really in the night sky; we put them there ourselves.” [1]

The Pipe Nebula is part of a larger complex of dark nebulae, which also resembles a horse, which is framed in this image. These clouds are located about 450 light-years away in Ophiucus, cataloged in the early 20th century by pioneering astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B59, B72, B77 and B78. Dense cores of gas and dust within the Pipe Nebula are collapsing to form stars [2].

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It was imaged under the dark skies of the 12º Encontro Brasileiro de Astrofotografia (12th Brazilian Astrophotography Meeting): I travelled some 1200km to share imaging nights with wonderful people under great skies, making those some of the most memorable days of the year! Overall, I’m more than pleased with the result. Colour was very difficult to process, and balancing the delicate structures and the large scale dark nebulosity was a challenge. So was the harmonious mixture of contrast, brightness and subtleness.

Constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome in the comments section. Thank you for taking your time to look at this image!

Dates: 31/07/2019, 01/08/2019, 02/08/2019

Locations: 12th EBA, GO, Brazil. Dark-Rural Skies (Bortle 2-3, calculated SQM ~21.6)

Camera: Canon EOS T5/1200D (mod) at ISO 800

Optics: Samyang 135mm f/2 operated at f/2.0

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5, tracking, guided

Exposure Detail: 2 panel mosaic, 29x180s + 19x180s. Total 144min.

[1] Cosmos, Carl Sagan

[2] APOD 2012/11/23

Dedico esta imagem ao grande mestre e amigo José Carlos Diniz, que com a boa prosa e cachimbo na boca, faz sempre as noites de fotografia mais alegres e enriquecedoras.