In this episode we explore Dark Nebula.  What is "dark"? It is the absence of light or the obscuration of light.  The Vulture Head Nebula, LBN 777 is a "Dark" Nebula that has very faint reflective light in the shape of a Vulture’s head along with a Dark Nebula above and behind the Vulture’s Eye, cataloged as Bernard 207 (B207).  The Vulture’s Head Dark Nebula is part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC-1) which is in the constellations Taurus and Auriga. 

The molecular cloud region, including the Vultures Head Dark Nebula, is different than the Emission Nebulae which are excited by nearby stars which ionizes their Sulfur, Hydrogen and Oxygen gas.  The Molecular cloud regions are very cold and most likely have elements and much more complex molecules which are nurseries for not only stars, but also planets around those stars.  This nursery is of course in the Milky Way Galaxy (our Galaxy) and one of the closest to Earth about 430 Light Years away.  So the light you are seeing in this image is “only” 430 years old.  Some of the stars you see are also very young, some only 1 – 2 million years old.  Contrast that with our own Sun which is 4.5 Billion years old.

What is striking is the brown color of the Nebula, you can think of this as “star dust”, “dirt”, “rocks”, etc.  As the “star dust” moves around, it will eventually congeal due to gravity and start forming round structures, which eventually will become a star or planets. The “dust” could also contain heavier elements (Gold, Silver, Platinum…) that were previously created by a star going supernova.  All the elements on our planet (earth) were created that way, and hence it is a finite resource.  Once the elements are mined and used (i.e. Lithium, Uranium) they are gone forever.

Also of note, these dust belts are not unique to our galaxy, they are also visible in other galaxies in our Universe.  In the case of our galaxy (Milky Way Galaxy) the Taurus Molecular Cloud surrounds our solar system and is part of the local arm of our Milky Way.

The colors you are seeing are true, what you would see if your eyes were sensitive enough.  For example the blue tinted stars are 10 to 150 times as large as our Sun and blue to our eyes, because they are much hotter than our Sun.  Stars the temperature of our Sun are yellow and cooler stars than our Sun are red.
This image covers over 3 degrees 53 minutes by 2 degrees 35 minutes in the night sky and the camera has 60 Megapixels at 1.4 arc second per pixel.  To give you an idea of how much of the sky that is, tonight hold out your hand at arm’s length into the sky and put up two fingers, that is approximately 3 degrees.

Acquisition:
These Dark Nebulae are difficult to capture and consequently are usually not imaged as often.  I captured this astronomical data using wide band (visible light) Red, Green, Blue and Luminance filters in 1 nights 10/19/2022 at my Astronomy Club's dark sky property, San Diego Astronomy Association (SDAA) at Tierra Del Sol, Bortle 3 location.  I camped there overnight. Broad band images (full spectrum, RGB) of Dark Nebulae need to be acquired at a dark sky, otherwise the images will be swamped by light pollution and detail will be lacking.   
19 Exposures 10 minutes each, unguided, Luminance = 3hours 10 min
8 Exposures 15 minutes each, unguided, Red = 1 hour 20 min
8 Exposures 15 minutes each, unguided, Green = 1 hour 20 min
8 Exposures 15 minutes each, unguided, Blue = 1 hour 20 min
Total Exposure 7 hours 10 min

I've added a plate solving algorithm from PixInsight which overlays the image and identifies the objects in the Star Catalogs.  
Click on the image, Top right click on full resolution, After it loads, top right, click on "Fit to Window".  
For the galaxy hunters, all the NGC PGC objects identified in this image are galaxies.  Hover your cursor over one of the catalog objects and click on the object and the full resolution image will come up, you will be able to identify the galaxies. PGC14554 towards the bottom is an interesting spiral galaxy. PGC14374, by the beak of the Vulture, is a nice irregular galaxy.