LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat Nebula (Gary Imm)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph) · Contains: LBN 6 · LBN 7 · LDN 43

LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat Nebula

This dark nebula is located in the constellation of Ophiuchus at a declination of -16 degrees. Dark nebulae distances are hard to estimate – the distance estimates here range from 500 to 1500 light years. It spans 0.7 degrees arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a width of about 10 light years.

Unlike most of my posted images, north is down here so that the Cosmic Bat is not flying upside down.

This object is the 43rd entry in the Lynds Dark Nebulae (LDN) Catalog, published by US astronomer Beverly Turner Lynds in 1962. The survey used the 48 inch Palomar telescope and includes 1802 dark nebulae down to the -33 degree declination limit of the telescope.

LDN 43 is obscuring a larger bright nebula behind it, LBN 7. LBN 7 is the illuminated dust surrounding the dark nebula.

Two cometary nebulae are seen at the center of LDN 43. The first, GN 16.31.7, is the brightest yellow object at center, lit up by the hidden young star RNO 91. Slightly above and left is the 2nd cometary nebula, GN 16.31.3, lit up by RNO 90.

The small galaxy seen below LDN 43, just to the left of a bright orange star, is LEDA 3868080. This galaxy is located 400 million light years away. It is slightly larger than our Milky Way, at about 130,000 light years in diameter. This background galaxy is 400,000 times further away than the foreground nebula.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7808331
PixInsight job	VA0Z5HYNE6M1WDTD3OHU4EIM5NKULMHM
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	16h34m28s.10
RA (top/left)	16h29m33s.85
RA (top/right)	16h39m11s.90
RA (bottom/right)	16h39m20s.10
RA (bottom/left)	16h29m47s.57

Dec (center)	-15°45′59″.9
Dec (top/left)	-16°33′49″.3
Dec (top/right)	-16°37′33″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	-14°57′46″.2
Dec (bottom/left)	-14°54′04″.5

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LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat Nebula

LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat Nebula

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