B78 — Pipe Nebula (Bowl)
Dark Nebula in Ophiuchus
About
This is the Pipe Nebula's bowl, a dark dust lane in Ophiuchus, also catalogued as LDN 42. Sources give its distance as between about 450 and 700 light-years. The whole Pipe sits within the Dark Horse complex and hides the star clouds of the Milky Way behind it.
Imaging tips
- Wikipedia gives the bowl as about 200 by 140′, so it needs a wide lens.
- One imager used an 85 mm lens at f/4.5 with a modified DSLR and a CLS filter: 15 × 240 s at ISO 800, a field of about 10° by 6.7° that held the whole Pipe.
- Broadband is the filter choice: the dust shows only by hiding Milky Way star clouds, so a dark sky protects contrast.
- The bright star Theta Ophiuchi (magnitude 3.25) and the Snake Nebula both fall in a field that wide.
- Best in June; it peaks near 14° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 180′ × 30′
- Magnitude
- —
- Coordinates
- RA 17h 34.0m, Dec −26° 17′
- Framing, APS-C
- 130–220 mm
- Framing, full frame
- 210–340 mm
- Best months
- Jun
- Peak altitude
- 14° from 50°N, 29° from 35°N