The ROSAT PSPC has proven to be an excellent instrument for detecting soft X‐ray shadows cast by interstellar clouds. We have conducted a program of shadowing observations aimed at improving our understanding of the soft X‐ray diffuse background and the hot phase of the ISM. In this program, dense interstellar clouds are used to place limits on the distance to the emission sources of the soft X‐ray background by measuring the depths of the absorption shadows cast by these clouds. We will present some of the results obtained to date in this program, focussing particularly on shadows of low latitude clouds and what they tell us about the Local Bubble and the origin of 3/4 keV galactic emission. © 1994American Institute of Physics.