The nebula is comprised of dense clouds of dust and gas which obscures the light from the stars in the background, unlike emission nebula which glow due to ionized gas. It’s located in the constellation of Cassiopeia and is approximately 700 to 3,000 Lys from the gravity-well. It gets its nickname from the appearance of an outstretched hand reaching up (orientation of this picture). There are a number of Lynd’s Dark Nebula (LDN) within frame including LDN 1355 (palm), LDN 1357 (the fingers) and 1358 (the shoulder) along with the blue reflection nebulae VdB 9 which is located to the left of the hand and VdB 7 located in the lower left corner of the frame.
The nebula is comprised of dense clouds of dust and gas which obscures the light from the stars in the background, unlike emission nebula which glow due to ionized gas. It’s located in the constellation of Cassiopeia and is approximately 700 to 3,000 Lys from the gravity-well. It gets its nickname from the appearance of an outstretched hand reaching up (orientation of this picture). There are a number of Lynd’s Dark Nebula (LDN) within frame including LDN 1355 (palm), LDN 1357 (the fingers) and 1358 (the shoulder) along with the blue reflection nebulae VdB 9 which is located to the left of the hand and VdB 7 located in the lower left corner of the frame.