The sky around vdB 137 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 137 is a reflection nebula in Cygnus, 8,330 light-years away
vdB 137 (IC 5076, LBN 394, Ced 185) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cygnus, 8,330 light-years away. spans 7′ of sky, about 17 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 137 is vdB 137 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 HD 199478, B8Ia, magnitude 5.7. He rated it very bright in brightness and very blue in color.
Finding vdB 137 from Deneb
vdB 137 lies 3.3° northeast of Deneb, the magnitude 1.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 137 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 43°S, and never sets north of 43°N.
vdB 137 is 8,330 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 137 tonight left it about 8,330 years ago. It ranks 157 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (2554 pc).
