Nights at Melinda Heights

For a full size image click here.

Distance: 470 Light Years
Magnitude: Not Known
Size: 420 x 120 arc minutes
Age: Not Known
Telescope: Borg 71
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: AP 900
Exposure: L 20×90 Bin 1, RGB 20×45 Bin2

Barnard 59, commonly called the Pipe Nebula, is a large dusty region in the constellation Ophiuchus. The Pipe Nebula consists of three main parts; Barnard 59, Barnard 65-67 (the stem), and LDN 1773 with Barnard 78 (the pipe bowl). In addition to the Pipe nebula, there are Barnard 72, 77, 262, and 272 which form the “smoke” of the pipe nebula. Most of the Pipe Nebula consists of very cold dust with no star formation. This is unusual when compared to other dusty regions of the Gould Belt. Barnard 59 is the only part of the nebula that shows any star formation. Gravitational interactions and magnetic interactions are two theories behind the filament formation that houses the star formation in Barnard 59. My image only contains the pipe bowl section which consists of LDN 1773 and Barnard 78. My field of view in this image is 3.67 x 2.87 degrees which is large but not large enough to capture the entire Pipe Nebula.

This image was captured at a dark site but with very poor conditions. I began imaging just after 9:00PM but the fog rolled in around 11:00PM. The humidity was very high and condensation quickly formed on my laptop table.