B72 : Snake Nebula in Ophiuchus

B72 is a dark nebula that bears a striking resemblance to a snake, hence its name the Snake Nebula. Do you see it in the image? There are several dark nebula in this image including B68, B69 and B70 which are all below the snake. Dark areas like these are fascinating since at first glance they appear to be voids in the starry sky yet in reality they are gigantic clouds of interstellar dust that block the light of stars behind them.

Photograph Information
Date	08.01.2008, 08.02.2008
Location	Clearfield Observatory, Kansas
Telescope	AP130 @ f4.5 using AP .75 telecompressor
Camera	Canon 350D, Hutech modified type I
Exposure	Stack of 35, 3 minute exposures at ISO 800
Notes	75°F, 90%RH, Fair transparency each night, very warm! Calibrated with bias, dark and flat frames. Initial RAW conversion, registration and stacking in IRIS. Noise reduction in PixInsight LE 1.02 Additional adjustments in Photoshop CS2