Cosmic contrasts – the seahorse nebula Barnard 150 with open clusters NGC 6939 and the fireworks galaxy NGC 6946

About the Object

At times, the cosmos gives us unusual perspectives, and one of my favorite perspectives is the chance alignment of near and far objects and of objects of quite different nature.  In this composition we encounter three different types of objects: (i) the dark nebula Barnard 150, a.k.a. the seahorse nebula, an interstellar cloud som 1200 light years away; (ii) the Galactic open cluster NGC 6939 some 4000 light years away. With an age of 1-1.5 Gyrs, NGC6939 is one of the oldest objects of its kind, and indeed it appears to be dominated by yellowish stars while the sparkling blue ones are basically missing; and (iii) the fireworks galaxy NGC6946 owing to its large and abundant HII regions -  and an unusual high frequency of SN explosions, both indicative of a very high star formation history.

The whole ensemble is embedded in a sea of foreground disk stars and the associated interstellar gas/Galactic cirrus (sometimes also dubbed IFN), and, indeed, both NGC 6946 and 6939 are  affected by considerable extinction.

Observation Notes

Data were taken on 2025 July 13, 14, 15, 16, 18,and 19

Technical Details

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