History

In 1919 Edward E. Barnard published his discovery of dark nebulae in «On the Dark Markings of the Sky». This nebula is listed with number 175 with the notes: «Large; diam. 1°; bright nebula in the north part.» ^[239]

In Barnards photographic atlas, published in 1927 after his death, there is an additional description: «This is a large dark spot, extended north and south, 62' in its largest diameter. In its upper part is the star BD +69°1231 (8.8 mag) which is nebulous. This is apparently a large dark nebula, the brighter part of which forms the star +69°1231. In Monthly Notices, 69 (December), 1908, Dr. Max Wolf gives a photograph of the nebula, stating that the object was discovered by Dr. Kopff at Heidelberg on October 12, 1908. It is conspicuous on a photograph of mine made with the Willard lens at the Lick Observatory, September 24, 1895, with 5h 00m exposure. It is also shown on a photograph of mine made with the Bruce telescope, July 20, 1904, with an exposure of 3h 01m. By inadvertence, reference to this object was omitted in Lick Observatory Publications, 11, where it is cut out by the matting in Plate 83. ^[609]

In 1966 Sidney van den Bergh searched the «Palomar Sky Survey» photographic plates for reflection nebulae and listed the reflection nebula around the star BD +69°1231 as vdB 152. He included it in his 1966 «Catalog of Reflection Nebulae» and classified the nebula as «Type I», which means the star illuminating the nebula is inside the nebula. He noted: «Comet tail nebula? At edge of small very dense cloud.» ^[255]