Edward Emerson Barnard was an American astronomer. Among many astronomy activities he was also pioneering astrophotographer. He cataloged a series of dark nebulae, known as Barnard objects. This catalog contains 351 objects and was published first time in the 1919.
Barnard 343 (larger, to the right) and Barnard 344 (small, to the left) are two of them lurking in the Cygnus hydrogen clouds. The dark nebulae are actually a dust clouds that are not illuminated by any nearby light source, so it appears to be dark and obscures objects behind.
The large, bright area at the picture bottom is the LBN223 nebula.
Picture shot with 200/800 newtonian and Atik383L camera. HaRGB composite, 30×10 + 3x6x5 minutes.
Clear skies!