The Coalsack Nebula

 The Coalsack Nebula

Astrophotographer Alan Tough: "Inca astronomers referred to the Coalsack Nebula as 'Yutu', a partridge-like bird native to the Andes. The two bright stars in the accompanying image belong to the Southern Cross. They are (lower-right) Acrux (Alpha Crucis) and (top-right) Mimosa (Beta Crucis). There are also several open star clusters visible here, including the wonderful Jewel Box to the left of Mimosa."

"I captured this image remotely, using iTelescope T70 in the Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile (hence the reference to Yutu!). The total exposure time was 75 minutes through LRGB filters."

Image & Caption Credit: Alan Tough

Release Date: February 4, 2022

The Coalsack Nebula (Southern Coalsack, or simply the Coalsack) is the most prominent dark nebula in the skies, with a designation TGU H1867, first referred to in Cataloging 1850, being easily visible to the naked eye as a dark patch obscuring a brief section of Milky Way stars as they cross their southernmost region of the sky, east of Acrux (Alpha Crucis) which is the bright, southern pointer star of the southern cross. It dominates and overspills the southeast corner of what is considered the extent of the constellation Crux at a little less than twice the distance of Acrux, 180 parsecs (590 light years) away from Earth.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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