NGC 1980 (also known as OCL 529, Collinder 72 and The Lost Jewel of Orion) is a young

open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, an ...

associated with an

emission nebula An emission nebula is a nebula formed of ionized gases that emit light of various wavelengths. The most common source of ionization is high-energy ultraviolet photons emitted from a nearby hot star. Among the several different types of emissio ...

in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline ...

on 31 January 1786. Its apparent size is 14 × 14 arc minutes and it is located around the star Iota Orionis on the southern tip of the Orion constellation. Herschel made his first observation of the cluster which was called WH V 31 on 31 January 1786, but he possibly observed it during his studies of double stars on 20 September 1783.

References

Open clusters Orion molecular cloud complex 1980 Orion (constellation) Astronomical objects discovered in 1783 Discoveries by William Herschel Orion–Cygnus Arm {{star-cluster-stub