IC2087 and its dark nebula complex

The constellation of Taurus is known to contain a lot of major objects like its brightest star Aldebaran, the Pleiades, the Hyades, the Crab Nebula (M1), etc. 

What is less known (or known to a more “specialized” audience), is that the same constellation is chock-full of dark nebulae stranding much of its area. This dark nebula complex is known as the Taurus Molecular Cloud. IC 2087 is a small (barely 4 arcminutes in diameter) bright reflection nebula in the northwestern part of the constellation, embedded in a “sea” of dark nebulae, the most prominent of which is Barnard 22. IC 2087 is a bright whitish smudge, which contrasts with the pitch-dark nebula background.

I imaged this nebula complex on two nights between November and December 2024 from Saint Barthelemy in Valle d’Aosta (Italy), where I also met a group of longtime friends and fellow amateur astronomers.

The image below was taken through a Pentax 75 SDHF OTA with an ASI 2600MM CMOS camera and an Optolong LRGB filter set. Exposure times (LRGB) were 915:90:90:95 minutes (a total of 1190 minutes, or about 20 hours) in 5-minute subs. An ASIAir mini PC was used for acquisition, and an ASI 178MC color camera was used for guiding.