Observation Notes:
Barnard 34 lies about 1.5 degrees west of M37. Compared to some others I tried to locate earlier, including Barnard 5, this one was easy to spot. For a dark nebula. It appeared as a very soft hole in the Milky Way starlight behind it. The main body of the nebula covered about 1/4 to 1/3 of the view, which amounts to a span of 22′-30′. Bill Ferris came over for a look, and mentioned that he noticed a fan-like appearance to the left side, that I hadn’t noticed yet. After spending some time on it, I began to notice a couple dark spokes running to the northeast and east. The huge number of stars I wanted to plot really tested my patience. I was itching to shade in the Milky Way region around the nebula, but I did my best to keep a lid on it until the star framework was finished. The structures in the sketch can be compared with photography of the region that can be found here.
| Subject | Barnard 34 |
| Classification | Dark Nebula |
| Position* | Auriga [RA: 05:43:30 / Dec: +32:39:00] |
| Size* | 20′ |
| Dark Rating* | 4 |
| Date/Time | February 24, 2006 – 9:30 PM (February 25, 2006 – 04:30 UT) |
| Observing Loc. | Cinder Hills Overlook, Sunset Crater National Monument, AZ |
| Instrument | Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L) |
| Eyepieces/Mag. | 32 mm (37.5X) |
| Conditions | Clear, calm |
| Seeing | 3-4/10 |
| Transparency | Mag 6.8 NELM |
| Sources | SAC Best of Barnard’s Dark Nebulae List; Barnard’s Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way |
*Based on published data.