The sky around vdB 26 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 26 is a reflection nebula in Taurus, 470 light-years away
vdB 26 (LBN 828, DG 28) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Taurus, 470 light-years away. spans 23′ of sky, about 3.1 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in January.
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 26 is vdB 26 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 26676, B8Vn, magnitude 6.2. He rated it moderate in brightness and very blue in color.
Finding vdB 26 from Aldebaran
vdB 26 lies 8.3° southwest of Aldebaran, the magnitude 0.9 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
vdB 26 is highest in the evening in January
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 80°S, and never sets north of 80°N.
vdB 26 is 470 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 26 tonight left it about 470 years ago, around 1556 AD. It ranks 17 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (144 pc).
Objects within 6° of vdB 26
No other object on Go Astronomy's catalog pages lies within 6°.
