The sky around vdB 127 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 127 is a reflection nebula in Sagitta, 594 light-years away
vdB 127 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Sagitta, 594 light-years away. spans 1.1° of sky, about 11 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in September.
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 127 is vdB 127 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 Delta Sge, HD 187076/187077, M2II+A0V, magnitude 3.7. He rated it faint in brightness and red in color.
Finding vdB 127 from Telum
vdB 127 lies 2.9° west of Telum, the magnitude 3.5 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 127 is highest in the evening in September
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 71°S, and never sets north of 71°N.
vdB 127 is 594 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 127 tonight left it about 594 years ago, around 1432 AD. It ranks 26 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Hipparcos 2007 parallax via HYG v4.1 (HR 7536, illuminating star).
