This faint reflection nebula is located 500 light years away in the constellation of Taurus at a declination of +24 degrees. It spans 8 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a width of 1 light year.
Although the nebula surrounds the 7.4 magnitude bright orange giant source star HD 26514, the nebula itself doesn't appear orange to me. Like many vdB nebulae it is asymmetric, with most of the nebula in the top half of the frame.
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 90% complete, is
here.
Comments