LDN 48

LDN 48 is a dark nebula in Sagittarius

LDN 48 is a dark nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. It covers 6.14 sq deg of sky, about the area of a circle 2.8° across, and Lynds gave it opacity 1 of 6, the faintest. 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 48 from Alnasl

LDN 48 lies 2.2° northwest of Alnasl, the magnitude 3.0 star. That is within one binocular field.

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 48 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 61°N, and never sets south of 61°S.

The distance to LDN 48 is not well measured

No reliable distance has been measured for it yet.

12 Lynds bright nebulae and 60 Lynds dark nebulae lie within 5° of LDN 48

The nearest:

• LDN 40, dark nebula, 14′
• LDN 35, dark nebula, 23′
• LDN 49, dark nebula, 1.0°
• LDN 78, dark nebula, 1.0°
• LDN 10, dark nebula, 1.1°
• LDN 12, dark nebula, 1.1°
• LDN 93 Ink Spot Nebula, dark nebula, 1.5°
• LBN 4, emission nebula, 1.5°
• LDN 1795, dark nebula, 1.7°
• LDN 1801, dark nebula, 1.8°

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

• NGC 6522, globular cluster, 1.6°
• NGC 6520, open cluster, 1.6°
• NGC 6528, globular cluster, 1.8°
• NGC 6451, open cluster, 2.0°
• NGC 6540, globular cluster, 2.1°
• NGC 6565, planetary nebula, 3.1°

LDN 48 catalog data