The Snake Nebula (also known as Barnard 72) is a dark nebula in the Ophiuchus constellation. It is a small but readily apparent S-shaped dust lane that snakes out in front of the Milky Way star clouds from the north-north-west edge of the bowl of the Pipe Nebula. Its thickness runs between 2′ and 3′ and runs around 6′ in the north-west / south-east orientation. A good view in a 4" to 6" telescope requires clear dark skies.It is part of the much larger Dark Horse Nebula. To the right side of the Snake Nebula is found Barnard 68. Below it are found Barnard 69, Barnard 70, and Barnard 74.
Image Data
Telescope: Astrotech 111mm @ f/7
CCD: QHY10 CCD Camera
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 SynScan GPS
Image: 4 x 15 min, 1 Hours
Guider: Orion 80mm f/5, QHY5L
Location: Mt. Pinos, Ca.
Date:8/09/2013
9 BIAS & 9 Flats Applied
Captured with Nebulosity 3
Guided with PHD
Pre-processing: DeepSky Stacker
Final Processing: Photoshop CS5
Curves, Levels, Star Masking,
Contrast Boost
Image Information
Barnard 72 (Snake Nebula) is
the designation number that identifies the The Dark
Nebula in the field.