January 2019 - Picture of the Month
LDN 1622 in Orion
About 5.5 degrees north of Sara's last contribution to Picture of the Month, and in the same constellation as our Picture for last month, is an area of dust a few light-years across that obscures our view of the emission from some of the star forming regions that fill Orion.
This month we're a little north of Barnard's Loop with a wonderful monochrome hydrogen-alpha image of the dark nebula designated as LDN1622. Cosmic dust, and what lurks within, is a particular interest of mine and I think monochrome really brings our all the subtle detail inherent in these objects.
I haven't found any mention of this nebula being observed visually, and haven't tried myself in my light-polluted skies, so I'd guess that the background emission isn't bright enough for that. A shame, but narrow-band imaging is a different matter.
By the way, the fact that this object shares a designation closely with this month's Galaxy of the Month (NGC 1622) is purely coincidental. The fact that it's only about eight degrees from one of January's Double Stars, and twenty degrees from NGC 1622, like-wise. There's so much to observe in this part of the sky.
James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.
