Andrew Cooper
Apr 22, 2007    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
76mm f/6 APO

A vast starless area around ρOph, the region is devoid of the rich starfield to be found all around, punctuated by a few bright foreground stars(ρOph, 22Sco, οSco, σSco), set off on the south side by Antares and the globulars M4 and NGC6144, quite dark and with ill defined edges, larger than the 5° field of the TV-76/35mm Panoptic combo

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)

Rho Oph; Finely grouped with two 8 mg. stars, h., on intensely black ground, in a great blank space, existing in a vast nebula on Barnard's photo.

H. calls it [M80] the richest and most condensed mass of stars in the firmament, and speaks of it as on the W. edge of a vast starless opening 4° broad; in which, however, I found many minute stars.

― Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, T. W. Webb, 1917

E.E. Barnard
25cm f/5 Astrograph

Great nebula of Rho Ophiuchi. This object is put in this list because, though not wholly dark, it is partly so, and the evident obscuration produced by it puts it in the class for which the catalogue is made. The semi-vacant region in which this, the great nebula of Rho Ophiuchi, lies is about 3 1/2° in diameter. For references to the visual discovery and early observations of this strange region see Astronomische Nachrichten, 138, 211, 1895; Popular Astronomy, 5, 227, 1897; 14, 581, 1906; Lick Observatory Publications, 11, 19, 1913 and Plate 36."

― A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, E.E. Barnard, 1927

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

A complete list of credits and sources can be found on the about page