This faint tiny blue reflection nebula is located 3300 light years away in the constellation of Auriga at a declination of +33 degrees. It spans only 1 arc-minute in our apparent view. This corresponds to a width of 1 light year.
This object is only 1/2 degree southeast of the Tadpole Nebula, as seen
here.
Like quite a few vdB nebulae, this one is asymmetric nature with most of it southwest of the 10.9 magnitude bluish source star HD 243202. Note that dust is obscuring the surrounding nearby stars, except those at about 4 o'clock. I believe that it is this dust that is creating the reflection 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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