LDN 116

LDN 116 is a dark nebula in Sagittarius

LDN 116 is a dark nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. It covers 0.002 sq deg of sky, about the area of a circle 3′ across, and Lynds gave it opacity 3 of 6, faint. It is a faint cloud that shows best in wide-field photographs, and it is highest in the evening sky in August.

Dark nebula: a cold cloud of gas and dust, a few degrees above absolute zero, dense enough to block the light of the stars behind it. Dark clouds are where new stars form, and they show only by contrast against a rich star field.

Finding LDN 116 from Alnasl

LDN 116 lies 2.9° north of Alnasl, the magnitude 3.0 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.

A dark nebula shows only by contrast, as a patch with fewer stars than the field around it. Use the lowest power and widest field you have, from a dark site with the Milky Way high in the sky; a nebula filter does not help, because there is no light from the cloud to pass.

LDN 116 is highest in the evening in August

The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole southern hemisphere and north to about 63°N, and never sets south of 63°S.

The distance to LDN 116 is not well measured

No reliable distance has been measured for it yet.

16 Lynds bright nebulae and 74 Lynds dark nebulae lie within 5° of LDN 116

The nearest:

• LDN 120, dark nebula, 5′
• LDN 123, dark nebula, 15′
• LDN 127, dark nebula, 24′
• LDN 97, dark nebula, 43′
• LDN 93 Ink Spot Nebula, dark nebula, 54′
• LDN 119, dark nebula, 54′
• LDN 96, dark nebula, 55′
• LDN 143, dark nebula, 57′
• LDN 108, dark nebula, 1.2°
• LDN 157, dark nebula, 1.2°

NGC and IC objects in the field that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:

• NGC 6540, globular cluster, 17′
• NGC 6520, open cluster, 47′
• NGC 6565, planetary nebula, 1.4°
• NGC 6553, globular cluster, 1.7°
• NGC 6544, globular cluster, 2.5°
• NGC 6528, globular cluster, 2.6°

LDN 116 catalog data