Dark nebula lists - need help, please

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Hi all,

Dark nebulae are a bit of a niche within astro. The Inkspot and the Horsehead are two great examples. Chasing down these visually is something I like to do, and to sketch them is one of the more technically challenging things to reproduce on paper, and photo too.

I'm looking for a catalogue or two for southern sky dark nebulae.

There is the Barnard Catalogue, but it is for dark nebulae visible from northern skies, so this list only goes as far south as Scorpio.

In my searching, I've come across references to the Dcld and the Sandqvist & Lindroos catalogues, but finding the actual lists has been difficult to say the least.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated

Alex.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Hi Alex
What you may find and you probably already know, is that most dark nebulae are associated with the galactic plane. A handy reference is the Night Sky Observers Guide, volume 4. The Glories Of The Milky Way. It is northern biased but extends to 54* south and includes Lupus, Puppis, Canis Major, Sagittarius, Corona Australis and Scorpius.
How they can have not included Centaurus, Crux and Carina and Musca in the so called Gloried Of etc. is extremely baffling, maybe they are earmarked for volume 5 ?
In the object lists for each constellation, they break up the objects by type. Open clusters, Globs, Bright Neb and Dark Nebulae.
If you use Stellarium, in the pop out menu on the left hand side, in the DSO section , it lists the different catalogues the software uses and you can tailor your preferences and includes the Barnard Cat. and Lynds Dark Neb ( LDN ) Doesn't give any real visual depictions , just where they are.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Thanks Jeff!

I did a little more digging around and found the LDN & LBN lists.

Yeah, no description, but the lists have a opacity and brightness scale, and area of the object, and these help with identifying the object in question.

As for not having the constellation the object sits in, oh well, just need to go Old School and use the coordinates!

Alex.

PS, the LDN list is MUCH more extensive than the Barnard catalogue, and certainly extends much further south.