August 29, 2025
The Moon has changed phase thousands of times since the beginning of the cosmos, but only once did it shine on the night you arrived.
A Dark Veil in Ophiuchus
Birthday · August 29, 2025
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APOD published August 29, 2025. Credit: Katelyn Beecroft. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The diffuse hydrogen-alpha glow of emission region Sh2-27 fills this cosmic scene. The field of view spans nearly 3 degrees across the nebula-rich constellation Ophiuchus toward the central Milky Way. A Dark Veil of wispy interstellar dust clouds draped across the foreground is chiefly identified as LDN 234 and LDN 204 from the 1962 Catalog of Dark Nebulae by American astronomer Beverly Lynds. Sh2-27 itself is the large but faint HII region surrounding runaway O-type star Zeta Ophiuchi. Along with the Zeta Oph HII region, LDN 234 and LDN 204 are likely 500 or so light-years away. At that distance, this telescopic frame would be about 25 light-years wide.
Image credit: Katelyn Beecroft