Barnard 93 – The Leaping Puppy

Resembling a playful leaping puppy chasing after a will ‘o the wisp this dark nebula Barnard 93 obscures parts of the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24.

It is one of the first dark nebulae known, discovered in 1913 by E.E. Barnard (Barnard 1913).

This could make a fun cover for a Children’s book of space stories, well my 10 y/o thinks so anyway- he reckons he sees floating aliens in the photo 😊

Photographed in HaRGB from my backyard in Melbourne, Australia.

4 hrs Ha 3nm 600 secs
60mins ea RGB 120 secs

Processed in Astropixel Processor & Photoshop CC 2019

About E.E. Barnard

Edward Emerson Barnard was one of the great observational astronomers. He was born in 1857 in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Reuben and Elizabeth Jane (Haywood) Barnard. His father died before his birth, and he grew up under poverty conditions, with his mother having to support herself and her two sons. In young years he experienced the Civil War, and survived a cholera attack. At age of nine, he began to work as a photographer’s assistant.

In 1876, he purchased an equatorially mounted 5-inch refractor from John Byrne of New York for $ 400, or about 2/3 of his annual income that year. In January, 1881, still employed at the photo studio, he married Rhoda Calvert, an England-born lady whom he knew from his work in the studio. On May 12, 1881, Barnard discovered his first comet, which however he did not announce. He found his second comet on September 17 of the same year, and another one on September 13, 1882.

In 1892, Barnard discovered Jupiter’s fifth moon, Amalthea.

In 1916, he discovered the fast proper motion of more than 10 arc seconds per year, of the 9.5-magnitude star cataloged as Munich 15040 or LFT 1385 in Ophiuchus. This is the fastest proper motion found so far for any star beyond the Solar System. Since, this star is called Barnard’s Star.