Barnard 145 - Dark Nebula
Barnard 145 is a dark nebula that can be found in the constellation "Cygnus" - more precisely about half way between "Gamma Cyg"
and "Eta Cyg". Also the well known "Crescent Nebula" NGC 6888 is located only 2° away further east.
The shape of B145 is elongated with an extension of 40'x5' (arcminutes). Unfortunately I could not find any information about the
distance. But B145 seems to be a bit further away from us, because there are some foreground stars in front of the dark cloud. One
of these stars is named "TYC 3150 2492" and has a distance of about 155 lightyears with an error of +-95 lightyears according to the
catalog. So Barnard 145 cannot be closer to us than this star. So at least a lower limit for the distance can be given.
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Since B145 is quite large, a somewhat lower magnification is needed. So the 16mm Nagler was put into the focuser, which gives a
magnification of 120x. The Milky Way is quite dense and everywhere in the eyepiece the stars twinkle and glitter. Especially a bright
7mag star directly north of the dark cloud knows to inspire. As with any dark cloud, the absence of very faint stars is conspicuous and
so B145 comes across especially great due to the high stellar density of the Milky Way, as faint stars are almost completely absent in
a narrow, curved strip. Only some brighter stars are visible in front of the dark cloud.
Towards the east, the cloud becomes very narrow, while in the western part it is not quite as conspicuous. Especially at a magnification
of 270x faint stars can be seen here again. The southeastern edge of the dark nebula is most prominent and the transition from a starry
background to "darkness" is quite abrupt and distinct.
A great object on a warm summer night! :)
