The sky around vdB 48 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 48 is a reflection nebula in Orion, 1,430 light-years away
vdB 48 (LBN 928, DG 67) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, 1,430 light-years away. spans 28′ 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 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 48 is vdB 48 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 37370, B8V, magnitude 7.5. He rated it faint in brightness and very blue in color.
Finding vdB 48 from Alnilam
vdB 48 lies 1.1° northeast of Alnilam, the magnitude 1.7 star. That is within one binocular field.
vdB 48 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 90°N.
vdB 48 is 1,430 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 48 tonight left it about 1,430 years ago, around 596 AD. It ranks 78 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (440 pc).
