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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                   2023 March 30   
      
                           NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad   
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Matias Tomasello   
      
      Explanation: The delightful Dark Doodad Nebula drifts through southern   
      skies, a tantalizing target for binoculars toward the small   
      constellation Musca, The Fly. The dusty cosmic cloud is seen against   
      rich starfields just south of the Coalsack Nebula and the Southern   
      Cross. Stretching for about 3 degrees across the center of this   
      telephoto field of view, the Dark Doodad is punctuated near its   
      southern tip (upper right) by yellowish globular star cluster NGC 4372.   
      Of course NGC 4372 roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy, a background   
      object some 20,000 light-years away and only by chance along our   
      line-of-sight to the Dark Doodad. The Dark Doodad's well defined   
      silhouette belongs to the Musca molecular cloud, but its better known   
      alliterative moniker was first coined by astro-imager and writer Dennis   
      di Cicco in 1986 while observing Comet Halley from the Australian   
      outback. The Dark Doodad is around 700 light-years distant and over 30   
      light-years long.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: tantalizing Titan   
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          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
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