Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  24 Ori)  ·  The star Bellatrix (γ Ori  ·  VdB40
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vdB 40, Gary Imm
vdB 40, Gary Imm

vdB 40

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
vdB 40, Gary Imm
vdB 40, Gary Imm

vdB 40

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a faint small orange-white reflection nebula located 1300 light years away in the constellation of Orion at a declination of +7 degrees.  It spans 2 arc-minutes in our apparent view.  This corresponds to a width of slightly less than 1 light year.

Like quite a few vdB nebulae, this one is asymmetric in nature with most of it west of the 9.1 magnitude orange source star HD 243588. 

The bright blue star at the bottom of the image is Bellatrix, the 1.6 magnitude star Gamma Orion, which is the "right hand" star of the Orion constellation.

Sidney van den Bergh published his vdB catalog of reflection nebulae in 1966. It was later expanded by one for a total of 159. The collection encompassed all reflection nebulosity visible on the Palomar Sky Survey north of -33 degrees latitude.  My Astrobin vdB Collection, which is about 85% complete, is here.

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