a fork, or a two-arc shape limited to $\alpha$=185$^{\circ}-189^{\circ}$. The eastern side of the feature shows a small region of enhanced FIR emission centered on $\alpha$=185$^{\circ}$ and $\delta$=13$^{\circ}$.5 that stands out over its surroundings and to which we refer as the “main blob” (MB).

Optical information: stars
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The dust revealed by the FIR observations may (a) extinguish and (b) redden stars behind it. The first effect is a consequence of the “total extinction” property, whereas the second is the result of “wavelength-selective extinction”. The relative importance of the two effects is linked through the parameter $R=\frac{A_V}{E(B-V)}$, which is determined to first order by the size of the dust grains.

We tested two assumptions, one of extinction within the Milky Way (MW) that would affect some of the stars but not others, and a second that the VR is extragalactic and is located between the MW and the VC. In the second case it would affect the VC galaxies, but none of the MW stars.

For testing the possibility that the dust is “local” one requires a large number of stars with magnitudes and colors. These were extracted from the USNO-A2.0 catalog, which includes blue and red magnitudes for each 