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A nebula discovered in 1868 by Otto Wilhelm von Struve, and subsequently confirmed and added to the New General Catalogue with the catalogue number NGC 1554. Struve considered that the nebula was particularly noteworthy, but modern observations of its recorded coordinates (04h22 +19°36) reveal no nebula at all at that location, hence its description as Struve's 'Lost' Nebula.
The most direct explanation for the nebula's apparent disappearance would be simple error. There is indeed a prominent nebula in the same field of the sky (Hind's Variable Nebula, NGC 1555) and conceivably the lost nebula was simply a misidentification of that object, or perhaps some other nearby phenomenon.
A more interesting possibility is that the nebula represents a transient event that actually was observed by Struve and his contemporaries, but has now vanished from the sky, something that is by no means impossible. Indeed, the variable nebula to the south shows continuously shifting patterns as it reflects the variable light of the star T Tauri and, conceivably, some similar effect may have temporarily illuminated part of a dark cloud to produce a reflection nebula that was visible in the 1860's, but has now been lost to view.
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