LDN 43, the Cosmic Bat, is a dense molecular cloud about
1.4 kly away in Ophiuchus. This dark nebula is a stellar
nursery glowing with the dim light of star creation.
Hover over the picture for an annotated version
Date: 10 and 11 May 2026
FOV: approximately 60' × 40'; the angular size of
LDN 43 is about 21' × 2.0'
Rotation: −179.994°
Telescope: Stellarvue SVX102T + SFFX-1 flattener (714mm, f/7)
Guiding: ZWO ASI120MM mini mono guide camera,
SVBony SV165 Mini 40mm f/4 guide scope
Computer: ASIair Plus 265GB Camera Controller
Mount: ZWO AM5
Cameras: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS (11 May)
ZWO ASI6200MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS, APS/c (12 May)
Pixel size: 3.76 µm
Resolution: 1.054 arcsec/pixel
Filter: Optolong UV/IR cut
Frames: all subs are 300 seconds and 100 gain
twenty-five frames 10 May2026
sixty frames 11 May2026
Stacking: eighty-five frames using PixInsight
Total Time: 7 hours and 5 minutes
Processing: Pixinsight – DBE, SPCC, DynCrop, BlurXT, NoiseXT,
MultiScaleAdaptiveStretch → Stars, Sat
StarXT, MAS, MStr, GHS, HST, MAS,
PixelMath Add 0.25(MAS, MStr, GHS, HTS),
Sat → Starless
PixelMath ScreenBlend(Stars, Starless), Scale
Location: Darling Hill Observatory near Vesper, NY
