The sky around Cosmic Bat Nebula at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8, the Lynds bright and dark nebulae, and the NGC and IC objects in the field. The box marks a circle of the same area as the cloud; the cloud itself is irregular.
Cosmic Bat Nebula (LDN 43) is a dark nebula in the constellation Ophiuchus. It covers 0.07 sq deg of sky, about the area of a circle 18′ across, and Lynds gave it opacity 6 of 6, the darkest. It is a dark patch against the stars at low power in a telescope, under a dark sky, and it is highest in the evening sky in July.
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 Cosmic Bat Nebula from Han
Cosmic Bat Nebula lies 5.3° south of Han, the magnitude 2.5 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.
Cosmic Bat Nebula is highest in the evening in July
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 74°N, and never sets south of 74°S.
The distance to Cosmic Bat Nebula is not well measured
No reliable distance has been measured for it yet.
7 Lynds bright nebulae and 38 Lynds dark nebulae lie within 5° of Cosmic Bat Nebula
