Barnard 252 / LDN 1698

LRGB 150 125 125 125 min.
ASA RC 16“ f/8
ASA DDM 100

Barnard 252 (also known as LDN 1698 or the Dark Dolphin Nebula) is a dark nebula in the constellation Scorpius. Like other objects in the Barnards Catalog it has an optical opacity (or visual extinction) that is virtually complete, making it appear as a black silhouette against the rich, crowded background star fields of the Milky Way. Barnard 252 is a dense molecular cloud made of cosmic dust grains and gas. In terms of visual extinction, its a really opaque one (nebula opacity is 5), causing most of the starlight beeing blocked.