Amazing field just east of Orion and the boundary of the Barnard's Loop. This is one of the most colorful patches of the entire sky. Beautiful collection of reflection nebulae, dust and a subtle stripes of ionized hydrogen. These clouds of gas, dust, and hot stars are a part of star-forming molecular cloud in the constellation of the Monoceros. The distance to this giant molecular cloud (known as Mon R2) is estimated to be only 2,400 light-years from Earth. There are a lot of VdB nebulae on this image, including VdB 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73 and 74. Many of the objects here are catalogued in more than one catalogue (see the annotated mouseover).