This small orange reflection nebula is located 5600 light years away in the constellation of Sagittarius at a declination of -17 degrees. It is about 1 degree southwest of M17.
vdB 120 spans 2 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a width of 3 light years. I like the different color shades and textures of this nebula, surrounding the 8.7 magnitude source star HD 167746.
A more interesting orange reflection nebula is seen in the image below vdB 120, from the star IRAS 18145-1714, but I could not find a name or designation for it.
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.
Comments