Canadian Astronomer Sidney van den Bergh published a catalog of reflection nebulae in 1966 and this was his 47th entry. VdB 47, also known as Sh2-243, is a reflection nebula illuminated by an orange supergiant star, HD 37387, which is also responsible for the nebula's unique yellow-orange color. In my image it is the largest bright yellow star in the center of the image. The bright blue star southwest of the illuminating star is actually two stars but it is unclear if they are orbiting each other. Located 6500 light-years in the constellation of Taurus this nebula may be associated with a larger cloud in the region. It is also listed as a Sharpless Catalog object (Sh2-243) which suggests ionizing hydrogen, however, very little ionizing hydrogen has been detected.
I really like reflection nebulae and this one does not disappoint especially with its unusual color. Most reflection nebulae that I have seen are blue, white, or brown. There are very few pictures of this on Astrobin most likely because it is overshadowed by much more popular objects such as M1 (Crab Nebula) which is only 1.5 degrees away and all of the Orion stuff which it borders. Another difficulty of this object is that it is a reflection nebula so the sky has to be pretty dark (i.e. no moon). The star field looked pretty interesting to me as well so although I did some star reduction, I tried to keep it minimal - plus I like stars anyway.
Dates: 1-3, 1-4, 1-7, 1-8
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