This galaxy was discovered in 1884 by E. E. Barnard, professor
of astronomy at the U. of Chicago, and a pioneer in
astrophotography (also compiler of the standard catalog of
dark nebula). This galaxy is one of our close neighbors, at
a distance of 1.7 million light years. It is a much smaller
galaxy than our Milky Way; it has about 10 million stars, compared
to the 400 billion stars in the Milky Way. It is described as an
irregular galaxy with a fairly bright central bar, which is the
area that shows up most clearly in this image. In structure, it
is similar to the Small Magellanic Cloud. Along the upper portion
of the galaxy in this image are several prominent regions of glowing
nebula, the sites of new star formation. Particularly interesting is
the ring nebula to the right, probably a result of newly-formed stars
driving away the remainder of the hydrogen cloud that gave them birth.
Barnard's Galaxy can be found in the constellation Sagittarius.

Image Data:
Camera: SBIG ST-4000XCM
Telescope: 10" Schmidt-Newtonian, Baader MPCC
Exposure: 2 hours 10 minutes (10 minutes x 13)