LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat

LDN 43 is a dense dark nebula located in the constellation Ophiuchus. The image has been deliberately flipped upside down to create the impression of a flying bat. Because of this shape, the nebula is also known as the “Cosmic Bat.”

At the center of the nebula lie several T Tauri stars that illuminate small reflection nebulae. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to achieve the exposure times I had originally planned for this image. I had intended to capture deep hydrogen emission, but poor weather conditions prevented this.

In the immediate surroundings of the nebula, very faint Hα filaments can be seen, surprisingly oriented almost perpendicular to the main shape of the nebula. Since these filaments appear both above and below the dark cloud, they give the impression of jet-like structures. Whether that is actually the case, and how such a jet might form, remains uncertain. It is also possible that these features are distant extensions of the nearby Zeta Ophiuchi H II region.

During image processing, several artifacts became apparent, which I removed. They were remnants of the rejection algorithm, caused by asteroids passing through the field of view during the exposure. The brightest of them, (5) Astraea, was so luminous that it even produced diffraction spikes. I have illustrated the asteroid’s motion in an animated GIF.