The Black Widow (dark nebulae complex) (Giuseppe Donatiello)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg) · Contains: IC 5068 · IC 5070 · NGC 6960 · NGC 6992 · NGC 7000 · North America Nebula · Part of the constellation Cepheus (Cep) · Part of the constellation Cygnus (Cyg) · Part of the constellation Lacerta (Lac) · Pelican Nebula · The star 31Cyg · The star Alderamin (αCep) · The star Deneb (αCyg) · The star Gienah (εCyg) · The star Sadr (γCyg) · The star αLac · The star δCyg · The star ζCep · The star ξCyg · The star τCyg · Veil Nebula

The Black Widow (dark nebulae complex)

The Black Widow

Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello

RA/DEC J2000.0 21 07 1.316 +52 32 56.39

I do not hide the fact that I have always had a soft spot for Scarlett Johansson who, among other things, played the role of Black Widow, but this is not the case. Indeed, I have always been intrigued, since I was a boy, by this great dark cloud that looms between IC 1396 in Cepheus and NGC 7000 in Cygnus.

The complex does not have a vulgar name (such as the Pipe Nebula, Coal Sack, Snake, etc.) but is born from the fusion of some dark nebulae present in the LDN catalog (Lynds Catalog of Dark Nebulae).

Although I don't usually give in to pareidolia, it is undeniable that this complex is very reminiscent of the well-known arachnid, especially in ultra-deep images like this one, where it also shows eight "legs".

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3921826
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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The Black Widow (dark nebulae complex)

The Black Widow (dark nebulae complex)

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The Black Widow (dark nebulae complex)

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