Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia
LDN 43 is also known as the Cosmic Bat Nebula — and you can see why! The dark filament of dense star-forming gas is 12 light-years long and lies about 1,400 light-years away in Ophiuchus. The light coming from within is from young stars that have just been born. This LRGB exposure represents 4.25 hours of data taken with a 12-inch f/3.6 scope.