Dark Shrouds in Orion

The shadowy clouds of LDN 1622 are pictured in this observation from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. This image was captured in 2018 by the Mosaic-3 instrument, a wide-field camera used to capture large swaths of the night sky from Kitt Peak in Arizona.

Mosaic-3 has since been retired to make way for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
(DESI), the most powerful multi-object survey spectrograph in the world. This swap highlights one of the benefits of ground-based astronomy: the ability to upgrade and replace instruments as new technologies become available.

LDN 1622 is a dark nebula, so called because these dense interstellar clouds of gas and dust blot out light from background objects, appearing as ink-dark clouds against a backdrop of stars. This enigmatic cosmic cloud lies 1300 light-years from Earth in the nearby Orion complex, a star-forming region thronging with young stars and other dark nebulae.

This observation was taken before the 2022 Contreras Fire, which affected KPNO.

Credit:

KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. A. Rector
Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)

About the Image

Id:iotw2325a
Type:Observation
Release date:June 21, 2023, noon
Size:3513 x 3609 px

About the Object

Name:LDN 1622
Distance:1300 light years
Constellation:Orion
Category:Nebulae

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1.8 MB
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Coordinates

ObjectValue
Position (RA):5 54 29.26
Position (Dec):1° 48' 28.49"
Field of view:36.59 x 37.59 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 180.0° right of vertical


Colors & filters

BandWave-lengthTele-scope
Optical
g
474 nmNicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope
Mosaic-3
Optical
i
772 nmNicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope
Mosaic-3
Optical
H Alpha
657 nmNicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope
Mosaic-3