Barnard 138 is a very large Dark Nebula (Cloud) in the constellation Aquila. The field of view in this image is 4.5⁰ x 3.0⁰, so it will give you some idea about the immense size of this object.
Dark ‘holes’ in the star patterns, despite looking like the absence of information (light), are massive clouds of very dark dust. In this widefield RGB image, I couldn’t bring out any of the dust cloud, only the black silhouette of B138 against the starfield. Perhaps I’ll revisit and try with a Ha narrowband filter to see if I can pull out some of the dust cloud itself.
I attached an annotation as well so you can appreciate the size of the Black Lizard.
Capture Date: 7/13/2024
Equipment
William Optics RedCat 61 WIFD (f/4.9)
ASI2600MC Pro OSC camera with a 5-position ZWO filter wheel
ZWO 30F4 guide scope with an ASI120MM mini guide cam
ASIAir, AM5 mount
Filters:
Antlia 5nm RGB Triband Ultra – 1:10
ZWO UV/IR cut filter (Luminance) – 1:00
Total Integration: 2:00
Processed with PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop
Barnard 138 is a very large Dark Nebula (Cloud) in the constellation Aquila. The field of view in this image is 4.5⁰ x 3.0⁰, so it will give you some idea about the immense size of this object.
Dark ‘holes’ in the star patterns, despite looking like the absence of information (light), are massive clouds of very dark dust. In this widefield RGB image, I couldn’t bring out any of the dust cloud, only the black silhouette of B138 against the starfield. Perhaps I’ll revisit and try with a Ha narrowband filter to see if I can pull out some of the dust cloud itself.
I attached an annotation as well so you can appreciate the size of the Black Lizard.
Capture Date: 7/13/2024
Equipment
William Optics RedCat 61 WIFD (f/4.9)
ASI2600MC Pro OSC camera with a 5-position ZWO filter wheel
ZWO 30F4 guide scope with an ASI120MM mini guide cam
ASIAir, AM5 mountFilters:
Antlia 5nm RGB Triband Ultra – 1:10
ZWO UV/IR cut filter (Luminance) – 1:00
Total Integration: 2:00Processed with PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop
The dark nebula are interesting. I wonder if this can be seen visually or it’s only an AP target. Great stars and colors.
Terri
@terri Honestly, Terri, I had no idea what to expect when I first decided to shoot this. I really thought I'd be able to bring our some kind of dark clouds at least since something has to be blocking the light! I couldn't do it with the data I had, though. Eventually, I might try to image this with an Ha filter and see what shakes.
Greg
