NGC 6822, Barnard's Galaxy from the ESO. Click for larger (~127k). Credit: ESO

I’ve seen this little galaxy and I’ve tried to image it, problem is from here, Barnard’s is pretty far down on the horizon so atmospheric distortion can be a problem, still it’s a nice target.  Of course, seeing the wonderful nebulosity we can see in this gorgeous image from the ESO is pretty much out of the question without a CCD.

By the way you can get wallpaper sized versions of this at the ESO site, linked below.

The ESO press release:

Astronomers obtained this portrait of Barnard’s Galaxy using the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. Also known as NGC 6822, this dwarf irregular galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbours. The dwarf galaxy has no shortage of stellar splendour and pyrotechnics. Reddish nebulae in this image reveal regions of active star formation, wherein young, hot stars heat up nearby gas clouds. Also prominent in the upper left of this new image is a striking bubble-shaped nebula. At the nebula’s centre, a clutch of massive, scorching stars send waves of matter smashing into surrounding interstellar material, generating a glowing structure that appears ring-like from our perspective. Other similar ripples of heated matter thrown out by feisty young stars are dotted across Barnard’s Galaxy.

The image was made from data obtained through four different filters (B, V, R, and H-alpha). The field of view is 35 x 34 arcmin.