[NASA] APOD: 2026 July 31 – NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad

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APOD

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3. APOD: 2026 July 31 – NGC…

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APOD

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.

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NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad

Explanation: The Dark Doodad Nebula drifts

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, a tantalizing target for binoculars toward the small constellation

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, The Fly. A dusty interstellar cloud, it’s seen against rich starfields just south of the Coalsack Nebula and the Southern Cross. Stretching for about 3 degrees across this telescopic field of view,

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is punctuated near its southern tip (upper right) by yellowish globular star cluster

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. Of course NGC 4372 roams the halo of our

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galaxy, a background object some 20,000 light-years away and only by chance along our line-of-sight to the Dark Doodad. About 700 light-years distant and over 30 light-years long, the Dark Doodad’s well defined silhouette belongs to the

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star-forming

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. The dusty Dark Doodad’s delightfully alliterative moniker was first coined by

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Dennis di Cicco in 1986 while observing Comet Halley from the *********** outback.

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Date	July 31, 2026
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Authors & editors:	Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Keighley Rockcliffe
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