Barnard 86 is a dark nebula in Sagittarius that is also known as the Ink Spot. To its left (east) is NGC 6520, a young open cluster.

B86 is a Bok globule, a cold, dark cloud of gas and dust inside of which new stars are forming. The dust scatters and absorbs background light, making them opaque to visible light. The few stars that seem to be inside of B86 are actually foreground stars that happen to lie along the same line of sight.

NGC 6520 is thought to be 60 million years old and is located at a distance of 6,000 light-years away, spanning some 10 light-years in space. The cluster is 5 arcminutes in apparent size and has an overall magnitude of 7.6. It contains some 60 stars, the brightest of which is magnitude 9.

B86 is 4 arcminutes in apparent size and is 6 to 7 lights years across in real size.

NGC 6520 and B86 are located in the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud, one of the most dense sections of the Milky Way, in the direction of our galaxy's center.

Brian Skiff points out that Flagstaff astronomer Andy Odell has shown through photometry, radial velocity measurements and spectral types that the NGC 6520 and B86 are unrelated, with the dark nebula having a different velocity and being farther away than the cluster.

NGC 6520 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. Barnard 86 was cataloged by E. E. Barnard in 1913.

North is to the top in the above image.

NGC 6520, Barnard 86 Catalogs: B86: LDN 93 NGC 6520: OCL 10 Common Name: B86: Ink Spot Object Type: B86: Dark Nebula NGC 6520: Open Cluster Magnitude: NGC 6520: 7.6v Size: B86: 4.0' x 3.5' NGC 6520: 5' Constellation: Sagittarius Image Field Centered At: RA: 18h 03m 13s Dec: -27° 52' 45"