Barnard’s galaxy, NGC 6822, is a barred irregular galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius. It is part of the Local Group and is situated at a distance of approximately 1.6 million light-years away. In many pictures it seems quite a dull galaxy, but it has some remarkable star formation areas which seem to be almost perfect circles.
Galactic Cirrus
As you can see Barnard’s galaxy seems to be embedded in dust. This so called ‘galactic cirrus’ is dust within our own milky way and it is reflecting the light of the combined stars within our milky way. This remarkable feature is often overlooked or even deliberately processed out as it can obscure other features. However, I really aimed for an end result in which the galactic cirrus would have color and structure of it’s own.
And I must say I was quite pleased with the end result.
Little Gem nebula
Right below Barnard’s galaxy you can see a bright blue/greenish dot, which is the Little Gem nebula (NGC 6818). It is a planetary nebula at a distance of 6000 light-years from Earth. The nebula is just over half a light-year across.
Barnard’s galaxy in Galactic Cirrus – ACQUISITION DETAILS
Date: 29 june, july 7 2016
Location: Kiripotib, Namibia
Optics: APM 107/700 triplet with Riccardi 0.75 reducer and TS Quadruplet 480/80
Mount: Fornax 51
Camera: Modified Nikon D600 on the APM and modified Nikon D5100 on the Quadruplet
Guiding: Lacerta MGEN
Exposures: 30x8min ISO 200 + 12x12min ISO 200 with Nikon D600. 30x8min ISO 400 Nikon D5100
Thanks for opening a window of appreciation. Though the haze of our galaxy’s dust softens the appearance of Barnard’s Galaxy, though we might wish to clear it, the view is more natural. Your insights reminds us of that we have a galact home, dust included.
“Your insights reminds us” s/b “Your insight reminds us”. Mea culpa