@ 27 tracer : I’m not sure if Barnard’s Galaxy even has dark matter. I think I heard somewhere that concentrations of dark matter might just be limited to larger galaxies – then again I could well be wrong there. Does anyone know?

“I expect that gas will blow right out of the galaxy entirely; the gravity from the meager number of stars making up Barnard’s Galaxy can’t possibly be enough to restrain it.”

Ah! But what about the graviational contribution from the DARK MATTER within Barnard’s Galaxy? Would that be enough to tip the balance?

Thanks for the help Plutonium though!

“Barnard’s Galaxy is not precisely irregular, since it appears to have a bar-like structure across it. ”

I can’t see the bar-like structure in the photo Can anyone else see it? By the way, the stellar nurseries (red bubbles) look like small fireworks going off!!!! It’s so cool…

Yes, I can see it.

The bar structure is the rectangular shape of the main mass of bluish stars there. In essence, the whole galaxy is a bar shaped rectangle with fuzzy edges and a few pink blobs embedded too.

It does indeed remind me of the same sort of broad shape with the LMC.

- StevoR aka PbfP.

How did Barnard get both a dwarf star and a dwarf galaxy named after him?

By discovering both of them and much, much more!

This is from an article I wrote for the Astronomical Society of South Australia monthly newsletter :

***
Edward Emerson Barnard was one of the great 19th and 20th century astronomers. He overcame an impoverished start to life to make a number of significant discoveries including Jupiter’s moon Amalthea, 16 comets, and over 300 deep sky objects, mostly dark nebulae, but also including the Rosette and California nebulae. He pioneered wide-field astrophotography as well as making the first ever photographic discovery of a comet. E. E. Barnard personally estimated that he had observed every astronomical object possibly visible to him at least 100 times. Barnard has the eponymous star plus a Galaxy and numerous nebulae named after him. A summarised chronology of his career follows :

1857 Born in the slums of Nashville, Tennessee, to a poor family.

1866 Begins work in photographic studio aged nine. He only ever had two months formal schooling but proceeds to teach himself from second hand books.

1876 Barnard buys his first telescope, a 5-inch refractor, costing eight months worth of wages.

1881 Discovers his first comet.

1883 Obtains scholarship to Vanderbilt university

1884 August 17th observes the Galaxy now bearing his name.(NGC 6822)

1887 Barnard shifts to the Lick Observatory of the University of California having graduated with a Bachelors degree in maths and having discovered eight comets.

1892 Discovers the fifth moon of Jupiter – Amalthea –using the 36 inch Lick refractor. Also in this year, E.E. Barnard makes the first ever photographic discovery of a comet.

1895 Joins Yerkes observatory staff in Wisconsin and is involved in ground-breaking studies of dark nebulae.

1916 Barnard discovers the extreme proper motion of Munich 15040 which is then named Barnard’s Star in his honour.

1919 Publishes the first catalogue of dark nebulae.

1923 Barnard dies aged 66.

Sources :
Jakiel, Richard ‘The Man Who tracked Nebulae’, in ‘Astronomy’ magazine May 2001.(Pages 52-57)

‘B’ Volume, World Book Encyclopedia, World Book Inc. 1992. (Page 114)

Further reading : ‘The Immortal Fire Within : The Life and Work of Edward Emerson Barnard’ by William Sheehan.
(Which is available to read – but not to borrow – from the Bray Reference library section of the State Library. In Adelaide, South Australia.)

****

PS. Woo-Hoo! Seems I can post from home again!
BA, if you’ve fixed it for me – thankyou, its very much appreciated!

I can’t see the bar-like structure in the photo Can anyone else see it?

By the way, the stellar nurseries (red bubbles) look like small fireworks going off!!!! It’s so cool…

You’re right, that schematic sucks; it’s also wrong! I’ll show you how it’s done…

On a 24 hour clock, the Galactic Center is at coordinates 17h 45m 40.04s; the Andromeda Galaxy is at coordinates 00h 42.44m 30s, and NGC 6822 (Barnard’s Galaxy) is at coordinates 19h 44m 56.6s.

Thanks for posting that galactic map here. At first I couldn’t find Barnard’s Galaxy then I read the text again and realised it was down as an NGC number. Three things stuck me here :

1) Yikes – Barnard’s Galaxy sure seems a lot better easier to remember than another acronmyn and set of numbers!* Let’s please all settle on using the name ‘Barnard’s Galaxy’ everywhere shall we?

2) Hmmm .. Looks like Barnard’s Galaxy is pretty close to halfway between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies and their satellite groups. If we were on aplanet in Barnard’s galxy looking up -how bigand bright would the Milky Way and Andromeda seem – would we get a great view tocompare them or what!

&

3) Hang on a minute NGC = New General Catalogue which is now actually very old and was published a little while after Messier’s original one. Was Barnard’s discovery really included there or added later? Plus was E.E. Barnard actually one of the people who helped compose the NGC? I thought that was mainly John Drayer using Herschel’s data in Europe rather than the USA right? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_General_Catalogue . So what’s Barnard’s Galaxy doing in the NGC listing?

Thanks again though – great map!

—-

* Yeah, I know the Messier catalogue uses M + numbers too but, hey, at least it only goes up to 110 & doesn’t use ‘new’ when its old! Besides I’m sure you’ve heard that quote about “consistency being the bugbear of small minds” right?

Edward Emerson Barnard was a superluminous (ie beyond just brilliant!) astronomer who I consider to be one of the greatest observers ever and an inspirational astronomy hero. He had exceptional eyesight and spotted craters on Mars at a time many were struggling to spot Lowell’s non-existant “canals”. Barnard also had a fascinating and moving life story coming from a very poor background.

E. E. Barnard discovered the eponymous star, the second closest to our Sun, and was, I think, the first person to discover a comet photographically. He also discovered many other comets, Jupiter’s moon Amalthea – the first found around that planet since Galileo’s moons – and, of course, the galaxy seen here but is perhaps most famous for his catalogue of dark nebula which was published 90 years ago. For more see :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Emerson_Barnard

Although I’d also highly recomend reading William Sheehan’s superb biography ‘The Immortal Fire Within : The Life and Work of Edward Emerson Barnard’ (Cambridge University Press, 1995.) of Barnard’s life.

Barnard’s Galaxy is not precisely irregular, since it appears to have a bar-like structure across it.

Reminds me of the Large Magellanic Cloud which similarly often gets mislabelled an irregular despite having some barred spiral structure to it.

Great photo & post as always – thanks BA.

You’re right, that schematic sucks; it’s also wrong! I’ll show you how it’s done…

On a 24 hour clock, the Galactic Center is at coordinates 17^h 45^m 40.04^s; the Andromeda Galaxy is at coordinates 00^h 42.44^m 30^s, and NGC 6822 (Barnard’s Galaxy) is at coordinates 19^h 44^m 56.6^s.

The image below illustrates the positions of the galaxies in the local group:

The Local Group of Galaxies.
(Click on the image to Zoom In and Out.)

(Andromeda) ——————————–(Milky Way)
………………………………………………….^———–
………………………………………………….|…………….————–Barnard
…………………………………………………..US

(Yes, I know, the schematic sucks, I did it in just a few seconds!) So not quite looking at the center (a little off, otherwise we couldn’t see it), but in the general direction.

Yes, I know what he meant, but it just isn’t as clear (to me) as it could be. To me, saying something is at some distance toward the center, it implies that it is between us and the center. That would mean it is inside our galaxy. If it’s half the distance to Andromeda, on the other side of the Milky Way, I feel there could be an clearer way to say it. Espcially for those of us still struggling to get a grip on these huge distances.

CJSF

I assume that in these slightly irregular galaxies, stars revolve around a certain point? Are they just generally static or is there a common direction of motion?

..you mean, will be looking back at us? Or is that, is looking back at…homo erectus? Or.. oh, whatever…

I didn’t see a 40 meg jpg, the large jpg I downloaded was a little over 2 meg. There was, however, and 80 meg tiff.

This is the same Barnard that has his own star too, right?