The sky around vdB 42 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 42 is a reflection nebula in Orion, 1,340 light-years away
vdB 42 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, 1,340 light-years away. spans 5.6′ of sky, about 2.2 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 42 is vdB 42 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 36412, A8/9V, magnitude 9.5. He rated it faint in brightness and moderately red in color.
Finding vdB 42 from Rigel
vdB 42 lies 4.9° northeast of Rigel, the magnitude 0.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 42 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 southern hemisphere and north to about 84°N.
vdB 42 is 1,340 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 42 tonight left it about 1,340 years ago, around 686 AD. It ranks 68 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (410 pc).
