NGC 2070 is the largest and brightest emission nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It is 170,000 light-years away, and one of the largest emission nebulae known. The Tarantula Nebula lies at the eastern end of the LMC's stellar bar.

NGC 2070 was been first cataloged as a star, 30 Doradus, then discovered to be a nebula by Nicolas Lacaille in 1751–52.

Also known as the Looped Nebula, the Tarantula is roughly 100 times larger than the famous Orion Nebula but is illuminated in the same way: by the ultraviolet radiation from a collection of hot, young, massive stars embedded within it. The Tarantula has been an active star-forming region for about the past 25 million years.

Several OB associations have been observed inside it. An OB association is a loose grouping of between about 10 and several hundred O stars

The O stars are star massive, luminous, blue and of spectral type O. O stars have surface temperatures of 30,000°–50,000°C and masses of 20–100 solar masses.

Also B stars are present in this OB association, scattered across a region up to several hundred light-years across. The members of an OB association are all of roughly the same age (or in subgroups of the same age) and formed from the same interstellar cloud within the past few million years. This association. includes R136, an extremely luminous and compact cluster near the nebula's center; it is a hotbed of Wolf-Rayet stars.

A B star is a large, luminous, blue-white star of spectral type B with a surface temperature of 10,200 to 30,000°C. The spectrum is characterized by absorption lines of neutral or singly ionized helium,

with lines of atomic hydrogen evident, especially at the cooler end of the range.

Some databook information,

Visual magnitude 8

Apparent Size 40' × 25'

Diameter 900 light-years, with faint

Distance 170,000 light-years (52,000 pc)

Mass ~ 500,000 Msun

Position R.A. 05h 38.7m,

Dec. -69° 06'

During the days of capture the weather was very windy, vibrating the large Newtonian a little.

The image has a stack formed by Ha: 16 x 600 sec O3: 16x600sec S2: 12x1200sec