Good evening
here is a 2 panel mosaic of dark nebula Barnard 312 in Scutum.
You can barely separate the stars there are so many as Scutum 'sits' in the Milky Way, but this nebula must be so dense that the star population becomes almost negligible. I can only guess that the stars that you do see in front of Barnard 312 are in the foreground.
Details on the page as well as a link to a much larger version.
https://www.martinpughastrophotograp...e#/barnard312/
cheers and clear skies
Martin