Barnard’s Loop (Sharpless 276)

Emission Nebula Sharpless 276

(Sh2-276,

= H V.35 ?),

a diffuse nebula or SNR

in Orion

Barnard’s Loop

Right Ascension	5 : 15 — 6 : 00 (h:m)
Declination	-8 — +3 (deg:m)
Distance	1.6 (kly)
Visual Brightness	? (mag)
Apparent Dimension	> 600 (arc min)

Barnard’s loop is a remarkable nebula enveloping a great part of the huge

Orion cloud, or complex, it seems

to be associated with. It was perhaps discovered by William Herschel, and

finally found again by E.E. Barnard.

While difficult to be observed visually, it can be well photographed on long

exposures.

It is speculated that this nebula may be a supernova remnant.

Our image shows faint Barnard’s Loop on a star trail exposure of constellation

Orion obtained by Alexander Jäger of the

Interessengemeinschaft Astronomie (Astronomy Interest Group) at the

University of Constance.

Other parts of the Orion cloud, such as

the Orion Nebula

M42/M43 and the

Horsehead Nebula region can also be easily identified

in this image, as well as Orion’s major stars.

The extended image shows also the

Rosette Nebula.

Alexander took this image with a 50 mm f/1.4 photo lens stopped to f/2,

exposed 2 minutes on Kodak Ektachrome Panther P1600X film from the

Schwäbische Alb, South Germany.

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Hartmut Frommert

([email protected])

Christine Kronberg

([email protected])

Last Modification: 29 Mar 1998, 13:30 MET