The sky around vdB 145 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 145 is a reflection nebula in Cygnus, 2,480 light-years away
vdB 145 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cygnus, 2,480 light-years away. spans 17′ of sky, about 12 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in October.
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 145 is vdB 145 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 206887, F2II-III, magnitude 8.1. He rated it moderate (uncertain) in brightness and moderately blue (uncertain) in color.
Finding vdB 145 from Deneb
vdB 145 lies 11.2° northeast of Deneb, the magnitude 1.2 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
vdB 145 is highest in the evening in October
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 41°S, and never sets north of 41°N.
vdB 145 is 2,480 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 145 tonight left it about 2,480 years ago. It ranks 96 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (759 pc).
