| Description | Images | BARNARD163Barnard 163 is one of many dark nebulae in IC 1396, home of the far more famous "Elephant Trunk". IC 1396 is a huge emission nebula in Cepheus. Barnard 163 is a full degree from the center of the nebula and the "Elephant Trunk", both of which are to the northwest. 2 degrees north is Mu Cephei the "Garnet Star". So this is a rich area. It is thought to be about 3000 light-years distant. For beginners, I should mention the B stands for Barnard. Edward Emerson Barnard was a famous astronomer of the late 19th and early 20th century with lots of discoveries credited to him. He compiled an atlas of dark nebulae of which this is entry 163. http://www.dvaa.org/AData/Barnard.html He pioneered scientific imaging of the sky helping to bring an end to the era of visual astronomy. While others had taken images of a few bright objects he took the art to a much higher level. He also has a nearby dwarf galaxy and a star named after him. He was the sole discoverer of 14 comets and co-discoverer of 2 more. He died in 1923 at the age of 65 from complications of diabetes which had dogged him the latter part of his life. Related Designations for BARNARD163BARNARD163, |
| BARNARD174B174/LDN1164 is a dark nebula that nearly fits my field of view. Most are too big. IR shows it is hiding a bunch of new stars which isn't much of a surprise. One is seen just to the east of the northern end of the cloud. I show it in a separate image. It is seen because it is a Herbig Haro object known as HH354. It is obvious in the luminance image but was difficult in the red image. Some H alpha data likely would have helped bring it out. I didn't find any distance estimates for this Cepheus object. |
| BARNARD330Barnard 330/LDN 647 is a dark nebula in Aquila. There is virtually nothing on it that I could find in the literature. While determining the distance to such nebula is difficult and has a wide error margin I found not even one attempt to give it a distance. One source put typical dark nebula in Aquila at about 1000 light-years. I have no idea if this might apply to this dark nebula, however. NED lists one heavily obscured galaxy in the image. I didn't make an annotated image for one very faint smudge of a galaxy. NED had little on it but its position. It is 2MASX J19194212+0721408 which gives its position for those who just have to find it. Related Designations for BARNARD330BARNARD330, |
| BARNARD335Barnard 335/LDN 663 is a small, very dense dark nebula on the eastern edge of the Milky Way in Aquila. It is considered to be a Bok globule. These are usually seen in emission nebula as dark dense regions where star formation is likely occurring. They can, however, occur wherever a dense molecular cloud is found. Many of Barnard's smaller dark nebulae are Bok globules. Bok globules are cold. One paper measures B335's temperature as 10 Kelvin which is near absolute zero so very cold indeed. Cold gas and dust like this is needed for star formation. If warmer the dust and gas has too much energy to condense to form stars. I found several distance estimates ranging from 250 to 420 parsecs (800 to 1400 light-years). You are free to flip a three sided coin on this one. I tend toward the larger distance as the estimates were slightly clustered to the high end of this range. Related Designations for BARNARD335BARNARD335, |
| BARNARD343Barnard 343 is a much imaged dark nebula on the western edge of LBN 223 which is part of the nebula complex 1.6 degrees west of Sadr. It is almost always imaged in narrow band. I much prefer the colors from LRGB imaging and the complex is certainly bright enough for this type of imaging. I don't understand why it is so rarely done as the colors are much stronger in LRGB than narrow band. Many posts of this object say it is in the IC 1318 nebula around Sadr though I don't see that as correct. Most sources make this nebula only about 50 minutes across. It would have to be three times that size to reach to Barnard 343. Also most images I found use high contrast that loses the detail inside the nebula. It isn't totally dark as it has areas in which some stars and nebula are seen through the cloud. Only part of it is so dense it blocks everything behind it. Even then there seems a slight blue cast across it due to something apparently closer to us than the obscuring cloud or itself is scattering blue light to some extent while absorbing everything else. Related Designations for BARNARD343BARNARD343, |
| BARNARD352Barnard 352 is an interesting dark nebula that makes for a poor Hudson's Bay in the North American Nebula near Deneb in Cygnus. Actually, it lies north of the main H alpha portion of the North American Nebula in a region that has both some H alpha and some reflection nebula components. Taken through rather nasty clouds my color data is rather suspect, especially the blue which may be too weak giving more red to the image than it should. Being about 20 minutes across its long diameter it is a good visual target. It shows surprisingly well in my 10" f/5 at 50 power even without any type of nebula filter though the OIII does help it some. I've been unable to find a distance for it. It is likely closer than the North American Nebula complex that it partly obscures. That, however, has so many different distance estimates it made my head spin. Most fell between 1500 and 2200 light-years. So the dark nebula must be closer than whatever distance you pick for NGC 7000/North American Nebula. That nebula is far too large for my system so I settled for a poor excuse for Hudson's Bay instead as it did fit my field. Related Designations for BARNARD352BARNARD352, |
| BARNARD356Some Barnard dark nebulae are quite beautiful in spectacular settings. Others not so much. This one falls into the latter category. Related Designations for BARNARD356BARNARD356, |
| BARNARD361Barnard 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. Related Designations for BARNARD361BARNARD361, |
| BARNARD362Barnard 362 is a dark nebula located in northeastern Cygnus about 2 degrees northeast of M39. Like many of Barnard's nebulae, it isn't totally opaque throughout. It has nodules that are quite dense embedded in a far less dense cloud. While LDN 1014 at the bottom of my image is a single dense core much like a Bok Globule though I don't see it described as being one. Though a paper on Barnard 362 says it is a Bok Globule. I found one paper ( http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2011/12/aa16438-11.pdf ) claiming to have better determined the distance to LDN 1014. Their value is 258 pc +/- 50 pc (841 light-years +/- 163 light-years). This paper indicates it considers Barnard 362 to be likely at about the same distance though some data indicated it was about 50 light-years closer they consider that due to two outliers that when removed results in a similar distance. Related Designations for BARNARD362BARNARD362, |
| BARNARD365Barnard 365 is yet another dark nebula in the star cluster and emission nebula complex known as IC 1396. It is a somewhat "S" shaped dark feature. The image is centered on the coordinates for the nebula though it appears those aren't centered on the nebula as its southern end wasn't in the frame and is the densest part of the cloud. I should have checked out the framing but this was done when I wasn't home. I just trusted the coordinates to be the center. The dark cloud at the bottom of the "S" is also known as LDN 1087 and DOBASHI 3170. Related Designations for BARNARD365BARNARD365, |
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