This blue reflection nebula is located 1800 light years away in the constellation of Orion at a declination of +4 degrees. It spans 10 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a width of 5 light years.
I find this to be one of the more interesting of the obscure vdB nebulae, especially the textured region to the northwest of the bright 4.6 magnitude blue source star HD 37490. This star, also known as ome Orion, forms the "head" of the Orion constellation. I am not sure why the blue region around the star seems to have a purple tint compared to the northern section of the nebula.
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 Astrobin vdB Collection, which is about 85% complete, is
here.
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