This nebula is so named because of its apparent shape. It consists of a dark absorption nebula of cold molecular hydrogen and dust in front of a faint emission nebula containing hydrogen ionized by S Monocerotis, the brightest star in the image. The faint nebula is approximately seven light-years long (with an apparent length of 10 arc minutes), and is 2,700 light-years away from Earth. Madhup captured this image over 8.5 hours (Luminance 12 images of 30 minutes each and 5×3 RGB color images of 20 minutes each).
