This large interesting region is located on the border of Taurus and Perseus. Hold your mouse cursor over the image to see object identifications.

Covering 30 x 20 degrees, this wide-angle image shows a complex of bright red emission nebulae, star clusters, blue reflection nebulosity, and complex dark nebulae.

The Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC) makes up much of this area. A molecular cloud is a large dense area of gas and dust in space made mostly of molecular hydrogen and helium. It is a birth place of stars, which form from the material in the cloud.

The TMC is located 400 light-years away, and is one of the closest molecular clouds to our solar system.

NGC 1499, the California Nebula, a very large red emission nebula, is at upper right. It was discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1884.

Barnard also discovered and listed many of the dark nebulae in this region in his book A Photographic Atlas of Selected Areas of the Milky Way, including B22, B219, B7, B18, B4, B1 and B19. Lynds dark nebula LDN 1459 and LDN 1548 are also in this area.

The Pleiades, M45, is the beautiful open cluster involved with blue reflection nebulosity at lower right center. NGC 1746 and NGC 1817 are two other open clusters in the image.

The Hyades, Melotte 25, is a very distinctive large star cluster in the shape of a "V" at lower left.

Taurus Molecular Cloud Object Type: Wide Field Area Size: 30° x 20° Constellation: Taurus and Perseus Image Field Centered At: RA: 04h 25m 48s Dec: +25° 54' 17"