Barnard 33, the Horsehead Nebula

Right Ascension	05 : 40.9 (h:m)
Declination	-02 : 28 (deg:m)
Distance	1.6 (kly)
Apparent Dimension	6x4 (arc min)

E. Pickering detected IC 434 photographically in 1889, the Horsehead can be detected on a photo made on January 25, 1900 by Isaac Roberts (Roberts 1902). E.E. Barnard recognized the object in the 1910s.

The first published description of the Horsehead Nebula was given in Barnard (1913), and it was first cataloged by Barnard (1919).

The remarkable Horsehead is a dark globule of dust and non-luminous gas, obscuring the light coming from behind, especially the moderately bright nebula IC 434. It is the most remarkable feature of an interesting region of diffuse nebulae, which belongs to a huge cloud of gas and dust situated 1,600 light years away in the direction of constellation Orion. The bright reflection nebula in the lower left is NGC 2023.

The image in this page was obtained by David Malin with the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This image is copyrighted by the Australian Astronomical Observatory; see their usage policy.

Observing Reports for Barnard 33 (IAAC Netastrocatalog)

References

• Edward Emerson Barnard, 1913. Dark Regions in the Sky Suggesting an Obscuration of Light. Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 38, pp. 496-501 [ADS: 1913ApJ....38..496B]. Here also plates XIX and XXb.
• Edward Emerson Barnard, 1919. On the Dark Markings of the Sky - with a Catalogue of 181 Such Objects. Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 49, pp. 1-23 [ADS: 1919ApJ....49....1B] (First edition of Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulae)
• Isaac Roberts, 1902. William Herschel's observed Nebulous Regions, 52 in number, compared with Isaac Roberts' photographs of the same Regions, taken simultaneously with the 20-in. reflector and the 5-in. Cooke lens. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 63, pp. 26-34 [ADS: 1902MNRAS..63...26R] Has the "discovery photo" of the horsehead. Roberts mentions this dark nebula in his description as "an embayment free from nebulosity dividing it [IC 434] in halves."

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Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: June 4, 1998