Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader Mod
90x60sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L at 200mm and f/3.2

Sky and Telescope Online Gallery October 14, 2008

Astronomy Magazine Picture of the Day November 3, 2008

A string of dark nebulae, a couple reflection nebulae, a very young star cluster, and a hint of hydrogen emission can be seen in this area that begins in the south of Perseus near the star Atik and proceeds southwest through Taurus and into northeastern Aries. The field seen here spans about 7 degrees of the sky.

I would like to respectfully call this area "Barnard's Cascade" (even if no one else does). These include the first five members of Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulae (B1-B5) and five of his later entries (B202-B206) derived from Barnard's great work, "A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way". Here are links to his original photograph and chart of the region. Here are the two superimposed. Looking at this superimposed version and my image, it appears to me that B2 is not a dark nebula, but actually a clear hole in the dust allowing the darker background to shine through - an understandable error considering the technology of the day.

While these objects are catalogued as separate structures, they are actually all part of one large collection of dust and gas, excited at points by the hot stars within. If one looks close, the faint red-brown glow of excited hydrogen can be seen above one of the dominant reflection nebulas, NGC 1333 at right center.

The most prominent of the Barnard objects in this field are B5 above and left of prominent reflection nebula IC348 at upper left, and B3, the "Y" shaped dark patch to it's right. Many others can be seen as well.

The predominant reflection nebula is IC348, which abuts the south edge of Atik at left center. This patch of nebulosity also contains the very young star cluster by the same name at magnitude 7.3. The age of this cluster is only 2 to 3 million years.

The other prominent reflection nebula is NGC 1333 which contains stars less than 1 million years old. This nebula also has a significant emission component, though barely visible at this scale, and is seen as a reddish patch at the bottom of the nebula. One particular star system within this nebula, NGC 1333-IRAS 4B, is particulary high in water vapor and is exciting researchers with the obvious possibilities.

October 8, 2008