The sky around vdB 108 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.
vdB 108 is a reflection nebula in Scorpius, 411 light-years away
vdB 108 (IC 4605, LBN 1110, Ced 133) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Scorpius, 411 light-years away. spans 30′ of sky, about 3.6 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in July.
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.
vdB 108 is vdB 108 in the Van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae
Sidney van den Bergh listed it in his catalog of reflection nebulae (1966), drawn from the Palomar Sky Survey. He chose nebulae lit by a star bright enough to appear in the Bonner and Cordoba star catalogs. The star that lights it is 22 Sco, HD 148605, B2V, magnitude 4.8. He rated it moderate in brightness and very blue in color.
Finding vdB 108 from Antares
vdB 108 lies 1.3° north of Antares, the magnitude 1.1 star. That is within one binocular field.
vdB 108 is highest in the evening in July
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 southern hemisphere and north to about 65°N, and never sets south of 65°S.
vdB 108 is 411 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 108 tonight left it about 411 years ago, around 1615 AD. It ranks 4 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (126 pc).
