B 68 (LDN 57) / B 69 (LDN 55) / B 70 (LDN 54) Dark Nebulae in Ophiuchus

Center of field at approximately: RA 17 hours 23 minutes 00 seconds, Dec -23 degrees 54 minutes 00 seconds

Size: 4.0' / 4.0' / 4.0'; Magnitude: -- / -- / --; Class:  6 K G / 6 Ir / 4 K G

North is up

West to the right

Telescope:

 8" f5 Newtonian reflector

Camera:

 ST-8XME, self-guided, binned 1x1, temp -20c & -15C, camera control MaxIm DL 4.56

Image:

 Red (Hoya 25A) filter, 230 minutes (23 x 10 minute subs), 08/27/28/2006

Processing:

 CCDStack 1.1, Photoshop 7.0

Location:

  Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s)

Notes: Another view of this amazing area of the southern Milky Way. This string of three (named) dark nebulae are just southwest of B 72, a portion of which can be seen at the upper left of this image. The bright star in both images is SAO 185357 at RA 17 24 04,  Dec -23 50 39