The Pipe Nebula also forms the rear legs and hindquarters of the huge Prancing Horse Nebula, which can be found midway between M24 and Antares. The Pipe's stem begins only 2В° west-southwest of this 7th-magnitude cluster. The markedly oblate globular cluster M19 serves as a useful landmark for those using RFTs. They'll reveal the Pipe's distinctive shape in merely decent skies. If your skies don't match those of Prude Ranch or Kobau, try binoculars. A decade later Jim Failes surprised me by pointing out the Pipe's naked-eye visibility at the Mount Kobau Star Party in British Columbia, fully 19В° of latitude farther north. My first view of the Pipe Nebula was at the 1983 Texas Star Party.

West to east, these dust clouds are cataloged as B59, B65, B66, and B67. In superb skies my 7x50 binoculars can distinguish each of the connected dark clouds that the unaided eye strings together as the Pipe's stem. The pipe's stem passes 2В° south of Theta and ends 3ВЅВ° to the star's southwest, just past the southernmost star in the line, 36 Ophiuchi. Barnard 78, the bowl of the Pipe Nebula, is centered 3В° east-southeast of Theta. The brightest, Theta Ophiuchi, lies at the line's midpoint.

Start your search about 12В° east of Antares for a line of three 3rd- and 4th-magnitude stars, the only reasonably prominent stars in that area. The 7В°-long Pipe Nebula is a fine naked-eye object in southern Ophiuchus. Click on the image for a better view of the Prancing Horse Nebula. When conditions are excellent, these and other dark nebulae are apparent without optical aid. In the center is the Pipe Nebula, which forms the rear half of the Prancing Horse Nebula. Even though my subdivision long ago voted against installing the scourge of streetlights, and though I often enjoy 6th-magnitude skies from my backyard, I still drive to nearby mountain wilderness to observe dark nebulae.ДЇor instance, how many amateurs know that a straight, 6В° black belt is sometimes visible to the naked eye running from 1В° west of Gamma Cygni to 1В° east of Eta Cygni? Or that, if the sky is dark enough, you can spot long, serpentine forms in the Milky Way just poleward of Cassiopeia's W?Дeep-sky objects abound in this wide-angle view of Ophiuchus. Most are subtle contrast features winding through the richest starclouds. This is perhaps the only object in the sky's northern hemisphere named after one in the south.ДЇew dark nebulae are as prominent as the Coalsacks, however. Since it adjoins the Northern Cross asterism, the derivation of the name is obvious the original Coalsack is near the Southern Cross (and is invisible at midnorthern latitudes). Both images are about 35В° square.ДЄt the bulbous northern end of the Great Rift, between Alpha and Gamma Cygni, is the Northern Coalsack. From antipodean climes, the southern Coalsack ( right) is visible as a very dark region bordering the Southern Cross. The Northern Coalsack ( left) lies next to Deneb in Cygnus, the Swan. I call it the Funnel Cloud nebula.Д«oth the Great Rift and the Funnel Cloud are visible even when a nine-day-old Moon is in the sky - if the atmosphere is clean enough that the scattering of moonlight is minimal and no other light pollution is present. Curiously, this prominent and widely known black cloud is unnamed. It descends south from a wide, dark mass to a tapered tip 10В° east of Deneb. Sometimes called absorption nebulae, they range from small black voids a few arcminutes across to the Great Rift stretching more than 120В° from Deneb to Alpha Centauri.ДЄfter the Great Rift, what's the easiest naked-eye dark nebula for Northern Hemisphere observers? I'd say it's the large wedge near the Cepheus-Cygnus border. Click on the image for a better view of the Great Rift.Дark nebulae can be enjoyed with the unaided eye, or with binoculars and rich-field telescopes (RFTs), or with the largest amateur instruments. The Great Rift, seen here as a line of dark patches bisecting the star fields of our galaxy, spans more than a third of the sky. The grand sweep of the summer Milky Way hugs the southeastern horizon in this wide-field photograph by Akira Fujii.

Dark nebula 3