The sky around Sh2-270 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
Sh2-270 is a bipolar nebula in Orion, 30,200 light-years away
Sh2-270 (LBN 877) is a bipolar nebula in the constellation Orion, 30,200 light-years away. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in February.
Nebula: a cloud of gas and dust. Emission nebulae glow on their own, lit by ultraviolet light from hot young stars; reflection nebulae shine by starlight scattered from dust; dark nebulae block the light behind them.
Sh2-270 is Sh2-270 in the Sharpless catalog
Stewart Sharpless listed it in his catalog of H II regions (1959), drawn from the red and blue prints of the Palomar Sky Survey. He rated each region's brightness on a scale of 1 to 3; Sh2-270 is bright (class 3 of 3). It is also listed as LBN 877.
Finding Sh2-270 from Betelgeuse
Sh2-270 lies 6.5° northeast of Betelgeuse, the magnitude 0.5 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
Sh2-270 is highest in the evening in February
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 77°S, and never sets north of 77°N.
Sh2-270 is 30,200 light-years away
The light seen from Sh2-270 tonight left it about 30,200 years ago. It ranks 153 of 159 by distance among the Sharpless nebulae with a measured distance. Distance source: spectrophotometric, Foster & Brunt 2015 (9.27 kpc).
