LDN 43

LDN 43 is a dark nebula lying about 1,400 light years in the southern part of the Ophiuchus constellation. It is often called the Cosmic Bat, and it’s easy to see why. The bat-like dark nebula obscures an even larger, bright nebula lying behind it and imparting a glow to the edges of the dust. This nebula is LBN 7. LDN 43 is a stellar nursery where new stars are being born.

“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.”

Tekkies:
Acquisition with N.I.N.A. Guiding with PHD2. Equipment control with PrimaLuce Labs Eagle 5 Pro computer. ASA secondary mirror focuser. All pre-processing and processing in PixInsight. Acquired from Obstech in Chile. July 7 – August 25, 2024, by my friend, Mark McComsikey, and kindly shared with me to produce this image.

ASA600 Ritchey-Chretien telescope with focal reducer (2,725 mm focal length, determined from plate-solved images) and Moravian C5 100 unbinned, with 50 mm square Chroma filters.

53 x 5m Red = 4hr 25m
41 x 5m Green = 3hr 25m
64 x 5m Blue = 5hr 20m

Total: 13hr 10m

Cooyright: Ron Brecher