The sky around vdB 30 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 30 is a reflection nebula in Camelopardalis, 5,510 light-years away
vdB 30 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Camelopardalis, 5,510 light-years away. spans 46′ of sky, about 74 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 30 is vdB 30 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 Alpha Cam, HD 30614, O9.5Ia, magnitude 4.3. He rated it very faint in brightness and intermediate in color.
Finding vdB 30 from Capella
vdB 30 lies 20.6° north of Capella, the magnitude 0.1 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
vdB 30 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 24°S, and never sets north of 24°N.
vdB 30 is 5,510 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 30 tonight left it about 5,510 years ago. It ranks 150 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (1690 pc).
