Nebulae

Barnard 86 and Beyond

Barnard 86 is a dense molecular cloud visible as a prominent dark patch in the direction toward the galactic centre. Next to it lies the brilliant young cluster NGC 6520. It most likely condensed out of this cloud only a few million years ago. Also visible is the heavily obscured globular cluster Djorg 2 near the left edge of the image.
The background is a rich blanket of tens of thousands of stars in the Milky Way's central bulge. Among them a couple of deep red carbon stars stand out, for example one half way between Barnard 86 and Djorg 2.
Barnard 86 spans about 20 light years and lies 5500 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Image details:
Date: 23-24 May 2012
Exposure: LRGB 69:28:24:24, total 2hrs 25mins
Telescope: 10" Serrurier Truss Newtonian
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand