B142/B143 - Barnard's "E"

These two dark nebulae in Aquila are sometimes called Barnard's "E", as their form resembles the alphabetic letter. They are situated about 2 degrees northeast of Altair, in a rich patch of the Milky Way, and obscure our view of stars lying behind them. Barnard's "E" is an ideal target for binoculars and wide-field instruments and is actually quite easy to see under dark sies and if you know what to look for.

Exposure Data

Instrument: JSO 4.9" f/3.8 Wright-Newtonian
F/stop: 3.8
Exposure: 35 minutes
Film: Kodak Ektachrome E200
Date: September 9, 2004
Exposure start: 23:30 MESZ
Location: Edelweißspitze, Salzburg
Conditions: Visual limiting magnitude 6.4 mag, seeing 3, temperature 5°C, no wind, low humidity
Autoguider: Meade Pictor 216 XT, max. error: 1
Enhancement: Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0, SGBNR 1.0.4 beta
Notes: Photo taken at excellent transparency during my stay at the Glockner-Hochalpenstraße in September 2004.