The sky around vdB 50 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 50 is a reflection nebula in Orion, 1,340 light-years away
vdB 50 (IC 431, LBN 944, Ced 55l) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, 1,340 light-years away. spans 8′ 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 February.
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 50 is vdB 50 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 37674, B5V(n), magnitude 7.7. He rated it bright in brightness and very blue in color.
Finding vdB 50 from Alnitak
vdB 50 lies 30′ north of Alnitak, the magnitude 1.7 star. That is within one binocular field.
vdB 50 is highest in the evening in February
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 89°N.
vdB 50 is 1,340 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 50 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 (412 pc).
