DescriptionImages

Object name: BARNARD361

Designation(s): BARNARD361,

Barnard 361 is a dark nebula in Cygnus about half way between the North American Nebula and M39. It's also known as LDN 970. I've seen it pitched as being a "pitch-black blotch" but as my image shows most of it is overlaid by a faint haze. Only some pieces seem to be truly black. I found one popular article saying it is 10 light-years across. That would put it about 1800 light-years distant. But a paper on dark nebula lists its distance as about 1200 light-years. I found little else in this field which surprised me.

This image is reproduced at 1.5" per pixel rather than my usual 1" per pixel.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designation(s):

BARNARD361,