Lying in the massive ridge of active star formation regions that stretches down supergiant shell LMC 2’s western edge (including N158 and N159), vast N160 has everything one could hope to find in a superbubble – a sprawling OB association with charming little clusters to ferret out among its glittering stars, a beautiful congregation of emission nebulae glowing in all gradations of nebulous light, and even a large Wolf-Rayet bubble. But it also hosts something rare and unusual… the pair of eerie high-excitation blob “eyes” peering out from the ghostly depths that earned this nebula its nickname “The Ghost Head Nebula.

16″ at 228x: LH 103 is awash with a rich array of bright and faint stars that appear as if they flow out of the superbubble’s bright arc of nebulosity in a wide norteast swathe, and lie against the rich glow of unresolved stars. Four small clusters can be found amongst its stars. Three of them – BSDL 2751, 2753 and 2757, along with a single star – form an unusual square, and all three of the clusters are fairly bright, small (each roughly 15″), irregular, and with crisp edges. The cluster H88 305 lies west-northwest of this square, and appears as a fairly bright, irregular glow, ~15″ in diameter.

16″ at 228x: Separated by ~20″ the two Ghost Head high excitation blobs “eyes” peering from the depths of this bright glowing H II region were discovered in 1985 by astronomers M. Heydari-Malayeri and G. Testor and identified as N160A1 and N160A2, separated by ~20″. Even without a filter the two blobs are impressive, appearing as two quasi-stellar knots of brightness, lying in the very bright, irregularly shaped, glow. There is a strong UHC filter enhancement: the two blobs literally jump out at one as dense little… well… blobs; the northernmost one, albeit remaining quasi-stellar, appearing the larger of the two.

The exquisite pair of blobs, peering out from the ghostly depths. Credit M. Heydari-Malayeri (Paris Observatory) and NASA/ESA

Surely one of the most extraordinary sights in a telescope is that of young massive stars just hatching from their natal molecular cloud… and it’s tough to drag one’s eyes away from them and examine the rest of the Ghost Head! But when one does, the nebula appears extremely bright, ~1.2′ in diameter, and off-round, just slightly elongated NE-SW. It is dense and beautifully uneven with the brightest section appearing swathed in a larger fainter nebulous glow that extends to the south and fades into a general background haze. A narrow dark absorption lane separates NGC 1980 from N160D = NGC 2077 which lies almost attached to the southwest; the centres of the nebulae a mere 1′ apart. Without the filter a few of LH 103’s stars are resolved in the glow.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: NGC 2085 appears as a fairly bright, round glow, ~20″ in diameter. It is rich, smooth and even, with slightly irregular, but well-defined edges. Its stars are hidden within the rich nebulosity. It forms a close binary pair with the cluster and emission nebula, N160C = NGC 2086 just 1.3′ E, and appears remarkably similar, although slightly smaller. Without a filter mag 10.0 supergiant HD 269953 lies just off the northeast side, although it doesn’t appear to be involved in the nebulosity.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: Appearing slightly brighter and larger than NGC 2085 lying just 1.2′ W, and  with whom it forms a tremendous binary pair, this nebulosity appears as a bright, round glow, ~25″ in diameter. The nebulosity is even and smooth; with the smoothness ending in correspondingly smooth edges. Without a filter, a faint star lies near its centre; but that is all one can see of the cluster that lies within all this rich nebulosity.

Both NGC 2085 and 2086 lie in a maze of faint swirling NNE-SSW nebulosity that is subtly uneven and peters out quite rapidly at both ends and has no discernible edges, just a gentle melting away. There is a smaller and very much fainter section to the south – this comprises the extremely faint N160E and equally faint N160F. The very small and extremely faint cluster HS 384 was picked up with averted vision, although it was only picked up because of its proximity to the mag 11.8 star, HD 269964, that lies just south of it.

Forming what John Herschel described as “a double nebula” with NGC 2080, astronomers Heydari-Malayeri and Testor discovered in 1986 that N160D is a Wolf-Rayet bubble whose bubble structure is due to the presence of a Wolf-Rayet star towards its centre – Brey 93a – which was detected by Morgan and Good in 1985. They determined that the bubble does not present a complete spherical structure, passing through a faint emission nebula to the south.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: N160D has a tremendous response to the UHC filter, appearing bright and elongated E-W ~1.0′ x 0.5’. The nebulosity is very uneven and patchy, its edges well-defined against the larger and very much fainter background nebulosity. Without the filter, mag 15.4 Wolf-Rayet star Brey 93a appears as a small faint star along with two equally small faint stars. What a star to see!