Helping Hand in Cassiopeia
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Francesco Radici
Drifting near
the plane of our Milky Way galaxy
these dusty molecular clouds seem to extend a helping hand
on a cosmic scale.
Part of a
local complex
of star-forming interstellar clouds
they include LDN 1358, 1357, and 1355
from American astronomer
Beverly Lynds' 1962
Catalog of Dark Nebulae.
Presenting a
challenging target
for astro-imagers, the
obscuring dark nebulae are nearly 3,000 light-years away,
toward rich starfields in the northern constellation
Cassiopeia.
At that distance, this deep, telescopic field of view would
span about 80 light-years.