Barnard 161 is a dark nebula right next to the more popular Elephant's Trunk Nebula. 

Mu Cephei (μ Cephei) or Garnet Star is a red supergiant. It is more than 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, with an absolute visual magnitude of −7.6. It is also one of the largest known stars with a radius around or over 1,000 times that of the Sun, and were it placed in the Sun's position, it would engulf the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Mu Cephei is nearing death. It has begun to fuse helium into carbon, whereas a main sequence star fuses hydrogen into helium. When a supergiant star has converted elements in its core to iron, the core collapses to produce a supernova and the star is destroyed, leaving behind a vast gaseous cloud and a small, dense remnant. For a star as massive as Mu Cephei the remnant is likely to be a black hole. The most massive red supergiants will evolve back to blue supergiants, Luminous blue variables, or Wolf-Rayet stars before their cores collapse, and Mu Cephei appears to be massive enough for this to happen. A post-red supergiant will produce a type IIn or type II-b supernova, while a Wolf Rayet star will produce a type Ib or Ic supernova.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Cephei

I was inspired to take a picture of Barnard 161 by the fantastic shot of the Capella Observatory team. Please check out their picture and website: http://www.capella-observatory.com/ImageHTMLs/DiffuseNebula/Barnard161.htm