Dark Doodad Nebula

The Dark Doodad Nebula is a dark nebula apparently located near the globular cluster NGC 4372, having a length of nearly 3 degrees of arc. It can be found in the southern constellation of Musca at only 700 light-years away, giving a real length of 30 light-years. The nebula was catalogued by Aage Sandqvist, astronomer at Stockholm Observatory, in 1977. The name “Dark Doodad” was given to it by American amateur astronomer and writer Dennis di Cicco in 1986 upon seeing an image he took from Alice Springs in central Australia.
This cloud consists of regions of dense gas and dust and is one of the closest star forming regions to the Solar System. It was described as one of the finest dark nebulae, wonderful, winding, and very definite. It has also been called the Musca nebula and grouped as the Musca-Chamaeleonis Molecular Cloud.
Just to the east of the southern end of the Dark Doodad is NGC 4372, a globular cluster located 19.000 light-years away.
Near the top-left of the picture, another globular cluster is visible – NGC 4833 – further away than NGC 4372 (21.500 light-years). It has a very eccentric orbit around the Milky Way, this being the reason of the severe mass loss this cluster suffered in the last 2 billion years.