B 72 (LDN 66, aka "Snake") Dark Nebula in Ophiuchus
Center of field at approximately: RA 17 hours 23 minutes 40 seconds, Dec -23 degrees 31 minutes 00 seconds
Size: --; Magnitude: --; Class: 6 S G
North is up
West to the right
| Telescope: |
8" f5 Newtonian reflector |
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| Camera: |
ST-8XME, self-guided, binned 1x1, temp -20c, camera control MaxIm DL 4.55 |
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| Image: |
Red (Hoya 25A) filter, 250 minutes (25 x 10 minute subs), 08/25/26/2006 |
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| Processing: |
CCDStack 1.1, Photoshop 7.0 |
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| Location: |
Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s) |
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| Notes: | This amazing area of the southern Milky Way lies a little North of
the midpoint of a line between the Globular Cluster M 4
and the M 8 / M 20 complex. There are many dark nebula in this area,
with B 72 being perhaps the most photogenic.
B 68 is the very dark spot
at the lower right of B 72. See this link to
my 14.5" Newtonian film shot. This description from the on-line Edward Emerson Barnard "A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of The Milky Way":
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S-shaped.
This is a striking object. It is a thin, curved black marking,
the exact form of the letter S or the figure 5, as the
imagination or point of view may dictate. The southeast branch
runs east for some distance passing close south of the star
CD-23°13375 (9.1 mag). Its average thickness is about 2' - 3'.
The position in the catalogue is for the southern part of the
figure, or the bottom of the S (see Astrophysical Journal, 49,
1919, Plate III)