Image recorded during 3 warm nights in September 2023. Several intriguing objects are populating the field together with the Mermaid and are described the the following lines, together with some info regarding Mrs. Dr. Beverly Turner Lynds who is the astronomer that compiled in the 60s the popular LBN and LDN catalogs.
Your observations, criticisms, comments and suggestions are, as always, welcome!
VdB152 and HH450Van den Berg 152 is a blue reflection nebula that glows around the Young Stellar Object BD+69 1231, at the tip of a mermaid shaped long dark nebula LDN1217, located 1200 light-years (according to Simbad) away in Cepheus. Around BD+69 1231 there are some bubble shaped formations and an external luminescent arch, regarding which I have found no descriptions.
Where indicated in the annotated and zoomed revisions, embedded in the nebula, is the Herbig-Haro object HH450, a jet emitted from a newly forming star.
Picture 1: HH450 and VdB152PK 111+11.1 or LBN538Dengel-Hartl (DeHt) 5 is a HII- and OIII-region, ionized by the white dwarf WD 2218+706 (the blue star in the center of the nebula). The nebula displays characteristic diagonal stripes.
Picture 2: detail of PK 111+11.1 and its central blue-white dwarf star WD 2218+706SNR G110.3+11.3The red Ha filaments clearly visible in the background of the left side of the image belong to the giant and faint Supernova Remnant SNR G110.3+11.3.
Picture 3: One portion of the Ha filament belonging to SNR G110.3+11.3Beverly Turner LyndsThe LBN and LDN classifications are originally due to Beverly Turner Lynds, American astronomer, born in 1929, PhD in Berkeley, 1955.
Dr. Lynds published the reference book "Dark nebulae, globules, and protostars".
Often the lives of even prominent astronomers are not well known.
Here is an interview released by Dr. Lynds in 2022.
Picture 4: Beverly Turner Lynds in 1973 - Credits: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, John Irwin Slide Collection
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