Barnard catalogue: 41 imaging targets
Edward Emerson Barnard photographed the Milky Way with wide-field cameras and listed the dark patches he found: 182 in 1919, and 349 in an atlas published in 1927, after his death. These are clouds of cold dust that hide the stars behind them. The planner includes 41 of them; they need dark skies and long broadband exposures, and they show best against a rich star field.
Further reading: Barnard Catalogue (Wikipedia)
B1
A dark nebula in Perseus about 800 light-years away, listed at roughly 70′ across.
B7
The seventh entry in Barnard's list of dark nebulae, in Taurus about 400 light-years away and listed at roughly 60′ across.
B19
A large, faint patch of dust in Taurus, listed by E. E. Barnard in 1927 and described in his catalogue as "large, indefinite".
B22
A dark nebula in Taurus, a dense cloud of interstellar dust that dims the stars behind it. It measures about 30×20′ on the sky, so it covers a wide patch of field rather than a small spot.
B30
A dust cloud in Orion, north of the star Lambda Orionis (Meissa) and inside the Lambda Orionis Ring, about 1,300 light-years away.
B33 — Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula, a dense dust cloud in Orion about 1,375 light-years away, seen as a dark silhouette against the glowing hydrogen of IC 434.
B34
A small dark nebula in Auriga, about 4×3′ across: a dense patch of dust that blocks the light of stars behind it.
B35
A dark nebula in Orion, seen against the glowing gas of the Lambda Orionis Ring, about 1,500 light-years away. Infrared images show it hides young stars and an Herbig-Haro object, HH 175.
B36
A dark nebula in Orion that belongs to the Lambda Orionis Ring, an HII region ionised by the star Lambda Orionis. It measures about 10×7′ on the sky.
B44
A dark nebula in Ophiuchus, also listed as LDN 1712 in the Lynds catalogue of dark nebulae, about 500 light-years away by one imager's figure.
B47
A dark nebula in Ophiuchus, also listed as LDN 1792 in the Lynds catalogue. Barnard included it in his 1927 catalogue of about 350 objects.
B59 — Pipe Nebula (Stem)
The mouthpiece end of the Pipe Nebula, a dark cloud in Ophiuchus about 600 to 700 light-years away. Its dust lane blocks the star clouds of the Milky Way lying beyond.
B62
A small dark nebula in Ophiuchus, listed as LDN 100 and also carrying the designations HBC 658 and RNO 92. It was catalogued by Barnard in his 1927 catalogue of about 350 objects.
B63
A small dark nebula in Ophiuchus, listed by Barnard in his catalogue of 1927. It lies close to B62 in the same part of the sky.
B64
A small dark nebula in Ophiuchus, listed in Edward Emerson Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulae.
B68 — Black Cloud
A dark cloud in Ophiuchus, also called a Bok globule, about 407 light-years away and with a diameter near 0.5 light-years.
B72 — Snake Nebula
The Snake Nebula, a dark lane of dust in Ophiuchus about 650 light-years away, shaped like an S.
B78 — Pipe Nebula (Bowl)
This is the Pipe Nebula's bowl, a dark dust lane in Ophiuchus, also catalogued as LDN 42. Sources give its distance as between about 450 and 700 light-years.
B84
A small dark nebula in Sagittarius, listed in Edward Emerson Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulae. It spans about 8 by 6 arcminutes.
B86 — Ink Spot
The Ink Spot is a small dark nebula in Sagittarius, a cold, dense Bok globule whose dust hides the Milky Way behind it. It measures about 4′, or 6 to 7 light-years across.
B87 — Parrot's Head
A dark nebula in Sagittarius, about 12′ by 7′, listed in Barnard's catalogue of dark markings.
B92
Of the two dark nebulae in M24, Small Sagittarius Star Cloud about 10,000 light-years away, this is the darker one. Barnard found it in 1913.
B93
A dark nebula on the northeastern side of M24, Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, about 10,000 light-years away. It is close to B92 in size but less conspicuous.
B100
A small dark nebula in Scutum, about 8′ by 5′, listed in Barnard's catalogue of dark markings. Like other dark nebulae it is a dense cloud of dust that blocks the light of the stars behind it.
B103
A dark nebula in Scutum, about 3° west-northwest of the open cluster M11. It carries the Lynds number LDN 497 and the top opacity class, 6.
B107
A dark nebula in Scutum, north of the open cluster M11, that Lynds numbered LDN 530 with opacity class 6.
B118
A small dark nebula in Scutum, listed as LDN 509 with opacity class 6. It shares that Lynds entry with B117.
B130
Lynds listed this Aquila dark cloud as LDN 542, with opacity class 3, a moderate rating well below the darkest clouds. It lies near B127, B129 and B134, and roughly 1.7° from B133.
B133
An elongated dark nebula in southern Aquila near the Scutum border, about 10′ by 3′ in sources, running northeast to southwest. Lynds numbered it LDN 531 and gave it the top opacity class, 6.
B142 — Barnard's E Nebula
The narrower, more drawn-out of the two dust clouds in Aquila that make up Barnard's E, a dark nebula that blocks the Milky Way stars behind it. With B143 it lies roughly 2,000 light-years away.
B143 — Barnard's E Nebula
The broader of the two dust clouds in Aquila that make up Barnard's E, a dark nebula that blocks the Milky Way stars behind it. With B142 it lies roughly 2,000 light-years away.
B144
A small dark nebula in Cygnus, a patch of dust that dims the Milky Way stars behind it. It comes from the Barnard Catalogue, compiled by Edward Emerson Barnard and published in 1919.
B147
In Cygnus, near the open cluster NGC 6871, this dust cloud stretches into a thin winding lane that looks like a snake against the stars. It is also catalogued as LDN 853, with B146 close by.
B149
A small dark nebula in Cepheus, a patch of dust that dims the Milky Way stars behind it. It comes from the Barnard Catalogue, compiled by Edward Emerson Barnard and published in 1919.
B150 — Seahorse Nebula
The Seahorse, a long thin dark nebula in Cepheus about 1,200 light-years away. It is built from three dense gas cores, labelled L1082 A, B and C, which are described as star-forming regions.
B163
A small dark nebula in Cepheus, one of many dark clouds scattered through the large emission nebula IC 1396.
B168
A long dark lane of dust in Cygnus that trails west from IC 5146, the Cocoon Nebula, whose distance is given as roughly 2,500 to 4,000 light-years.
B169
A small dark nebula in Cepheus, a patch of dust that hides the stars behind it. Edward Emerson Barnard included it in the dark-nebula list he published in 1919.
B174
A narrow, irregular dark nebula in Cepheus. Barnard noted that it runs northeast to southwest and measured it as 19′ long.
B352
A large dark cloud in Cygnus, lying just north of the main hydrogen-glowing part of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000). One write-up expects it to be nearer than that nebula.
B361
In Cygnus, this dark cloud (also listed as LDN 970) sits about halfway between the North America Nebula and the open cluster M39.