This object is a small rarely imaged reflection nebula located 1100 light years away in the constellation of Orion at a declination of +37 degrees. The bright central portion of this nebula spans 4 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a width of 1.3 light years.
The nebula is a rare orange color. I assume that this is due to a combination of the star itself being an M-type red giant, as well as the fact that the star is toward the front of the nebula, reducing the filtering and scattering of the light that reaches our eyes.
The source of the nebula is the 7.7 magnitude long period variable star V* V1057 Ori (HIP 24716).
Sidney van den Bergh published his vdB catalog of reflection nebulae in 1966. It was later expanded by one for a total of 159. The collection encompassed all reflection nebulosity visible on the Palomar Sky Survey north of -33 degrees latitude. My complete Astrobin vdB Collection is
here.
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