This image captures a dark nebulae complex located in the dust and star filled constellation of Ophiuchus at a declination of -23 degrees. The various Barnard dark nebulae objects are seen in ascending order in an arc from upper right to lower left.
Unfortunately, as is typical for dark nebulae, not much has been written about these objects. Together, they form the "smoke" rising from the much larger Pipe Nebula, the large naked eye dark nebula located just to the south.
My favorite of these is the coat-hanger shaped nebula Barnard 262, with its large size and dark lanes that seem to curve in meandering connected lines. Although the dark paths appear inky black at their centers, in full resolution it is possible to see faint stars in the darkest regions.
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. My Astrobin collection of Barnard dark nebulae is
here.
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