E.E. Barnard discovered IC 2087 visually on 18 Jan 1892 with the 12-inch Lick refractor while observing a comet. He noted "the small nebula is excessively difficult". His photograph in "On a Nebulous Groundwork in the Constellation Taurus" (ApJ, 25, p218, 1907) reveals a long winding dark lane with a small nebulous region surrounding a couple of stars within the dark lane.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/26/00): this unusual yellow reflection nebula (also catalogued as Barnard 14) is embedded in Barnard 22 within the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud, the nearest large stellar nursery at 450 light-years. At 100x (unfiltered), IC 2087 appears as a fairly faint direct vision object, moderately large, round, 3'-4' diameter. Fairly well defined although the edges fade into background. What is the striking is the location - only four brighter stars are visible in the 50' field with a complete lack of fainter stars down to mag 15! The surrounding field also shows evidence of very high obscuration (extinction about 5 visual magnitudes in the vicinity). Described by Barnard as a "very small, bright nebula, diameter 3"... "in the dark nebula B 22".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb