The Cosmic Checkmark is a dusty region in Andromeda. In systems with larger fields of view, it really does look like a checkmark. Sadly, in this image, we just have the “top” of the long part of the checkmark. Embedded in the checkmark dust is VdB 158, a small, blue reflection nebula. There is also a small planetary nebula, PK 110-12.1 along the top edge near the upper right corner. There are also a few distant galaxies in in the bottom left region below the dust though they might be hard to pick out with all the stars.

The Cosmic Checkmark, cataloged as LBN 534 is large both in apparent and absolute size. It’s a molecular cloud that spans 1.5 degrees of view in our sky and in absolute terms is about 34 light years across. The full extend of the cloud goes well beyond this image which covers ¼ to ⅓ of the long arm of the checkmark.

The distance to the cloud is estimated at roughly 1,300 to 1,400 light years though there is a fair amount of uncertainty in the sources I could find.

This is 25h 15m of LRGB data. For all the technical details, see astrobin.