Pipe Nebula
dark nebula in Ophiuchus constellation
The Pipe Nebula (also known as Barnard 59, 65–67, and 78) is a dark nebula in the Ophiuchus constellation and a part of the Dark Horse Nebula. It is a large but readily apparent smoking pipe-shaped dust lane that obscures the Milky Way star clouds behind it. Clearly visible to the naked eye in the Southern United States under clear dark skies, but it is best viewed with 7× binoculars.
The nebula has two main parts: the Pipe Stem with an opacity of 6 which is composed of Barnard 59, 65, 66, and 67 (also known as LDN 1773) 300′ x 60′ RA: 17h 21m Dec: −27° 23′; and the Bowl of the Pipe with an opacity of 5 which is composed of Barnard 78 (also known as LDN 42) 200′ x 140′ RA: 17h 33m Dec: −26° 30′.
“Pipe Nebula” enters the record as dark nebula in Ophiuchus constellation. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pipe, Nebula and dark can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Pipe Nebula” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pipe, Nebula and dark provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 17, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q16016. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1773.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pipe Nebula” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.