This was a surprisingly challenging object to image, not just because of the low surface brightness of the dust and gas that form the Taurus Molecular Cloud, but because of nasty reflections and artifacts from some nearby bright stars including, in particular, Ain (Epsilon Tauri) and Hyadum (Delta1 Tauri). Since the reflections were different depending on how I framed the subject, I ended up taking two entire sets of data and substituting in areas from the second set that had reduced/eliminated reflections into the primary set of data. All exposure times reported are for the primary data set alone, though similar exposure times were used for the second set of data with different reflections. Even with these additional steps, some reflection and diffraction artifacts remain from the nearby Hyades asterism. 

Hind's Variable Nebula is the very small, bright orange nebula surrounding T Tauri, the reddish variable protostar that can be seen above right of center. T Tauri stars, of which this star is the prototype, are very young stars that have collapsed enough to have surface temperatures typical for their mass, but have not yet given up enough angular momentum to complete their collapse, thus are not hot enough in their cores to be undergoing fusion. They are much more luminous than main sequence counterparts of the same mass simply because their radii are larger. The small area of nebulosity immediately surrounding T Tauri is variable in brightness over a period of months or years as dust and gas surrounding T Tauri obscure the star from the nebula, preventing or allowing light from T Tauri to reflect off the nebula. 

The Taurus molecular cloud, of which this image shows a portion, is a large complex of gas and dust stretching from Taurus into Auriga. It is, perhaps, the closest stellar nursery to Earth at a distance of approximately 430 lightyears.