Canon XSi, modded, Total RGB 48 min. = 16x3 min, ISO 1600
BSPN 8" OTA at F2.8, EQ6 mount, guided w/PHD and EQMOD

B72 is the snake like cloud of space dust that fills in the center of this image. To its right is the very dense dark nebula B68, and below are B69, B70 and B74. Starlight coming from the area behind these nebulae, densely populated with stars, is obsucured, thus forming the magnificant silhouettes seen from planet Earth.

All Barnard objects get their name fromt he renowned pioneer astrophotographer, Edwin Emerson Barnard, who had catalogued many of them in a list published in 1919.