The Dark Doodad and NGC 4372

Pictured here is the officially un-named Dark Doodad Nebula - a thick, opaque molecular cloud the southern constellation of the Fly (Musca). As is the case with dark nebulae, their colour comes from a high concentration of interstellar dust that preferentially scatters visible light and thus obscures objects behind them. The globular cluster (NGC 4372) is visible as the fuzzy white spot towards the top right of this image, while the bright blue star gamma Muscae (a variable star five times as massive as the sun) is seen on the right in the middle of the image.