The sky around vdB 110 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 110 is a reflection nebula in Ophiuchus, 755 light-years away
vdB 110 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Ophiuchus, 755 light-years away. spans 2.4′ of sky, about 0.5 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 110 is vdB 110 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 BD-20 4696, magnitude 10.6. He rated it moderate in brightness and moderately blue in color.
Finding vdB 110 from Sabik
vdB 110 lies 5.5° south of Sabik, the magnitude 2.4 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 110 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 69°N, and never sets south of 69°S.
vdB 110 is 755 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 110 tonight left it about 755 years ago, around 1271 AD. It ranks 31 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (231 pc).
