The sky around vdB 37 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 37 is a reflection nebula in Orion, 1,180 light-years away
vdB 37 (LBN 850, LBN 851) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, 1,180 light-years away. spans 5′ of sky, about 1.7 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 37 is vdB 37 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 34454, M2:II-III, magnitude 7.7. He rated it bright in brightness and very red in color.
Finding vdB 37 from Bellatrix
vdB 37 lies 7.3° north of Bellatrix, the magnitude 1.6 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 37 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 77°S, and never sets north of 77°N.
vdB 37 is 1,180 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 37 tonight left it about 1,180 years ago, around 846 AD. It ranks 51 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (362 pc).
