This dark nebula is Barnard 18, located in the constellation of Taurus at a declination of +24 degrees. It spans 2.5 degrees. Like most dark nebula, little is known about it, including the distance.
SIMBAD refers to this nebula as Kutner's Cloud -- Molecular Cloud. Dr. Marc Kutner published a paper on this object in 1976.
Hidden in the upper left corner of the image, at 04:37:23 25:02:40, is the tiny planetary nebula Haro 3-29, also known as PK174-14.1. My more detailed image of this PN from 2 years ago is shown below:
Haro 3-29 ******************************************************
My Astrobin Barnard collection can be seen
here. Astronomer Edward Emerson (E.E.) Barnard was one of the greatest astronomers of the 19th century. He was known as "The Man Who Never Slept." One of his greatest accomplishments is his atlas of 349 dark nebulae known as the Barnard Catalogue of Dark Markings in the Sky. Due to various reasons, the 349 objects have numbers ranging from 1 to 379, with some numbers unassigned. These nebulae were once thought to be holes in the Milky Way. After further study, they were discovered not to be holes but interstellar dust clouds which block the background Milky Way stars from our view. Barnard died in 1923 at the age of 65. Due to his meticulous work on the Atlas, it was not completed while he was still alive. It was published after his death, in 1927, with the last aspects of publishing the Atlas being handled by his niece Mary Calvert. The 349 dark nebulae vary tremendously in their density, size and beauty.
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