This object is a dark nebula located in the constellation of Taurus at a declination of +25 degrees. The field of view in this image is about 3 degrees.
Barnard 208 is the dark nebula at center. It is fairly dark, with an opacity of 5 on the Lynds opacity scale scale from 1 (lightest) to 6 (darkest). Various other dark and light nebula are seen throughout the frame, including LDN 1499 at lower center at Barnard 210 at left edge.
At least 2 small background galaxies can be seen. Identified in the mouseover, NGC 1508 is a magnitude 15 large lenticular galaxy. It is 200,000 light years in diameter and 300 million light years away. More interesting is the near edge-on spiral ring galaxy at upper left, which is UGC 2988 (PGC 14693). It is 180 million light years away and 70,000 light years in diameter.
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Reminder – This object and 3100 more are included in the
Imm Deep Sky Compendium, a free planning resource to help astrophotographers find interesting targets in their night sky. Foreign language translations are now available in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Polish, and Chinese.
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