The sky around vdB 111 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
vdB 111 is a reflection nebula in Ophiuchus, 467 light-years away
vdB 111 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Ophiuchus, 467 light-years away. spans 12′ of sky, about 1.7 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in July.
Nebula: a cloud of gas and dust. Emission nebulae glow on their own, lit by ultraviolet light from hot young stars; reflection nebulae shine by starlight scattered from dust; dark nebulae block the light behind them.
vdB 111 is vdB 111 in the Van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae
Sidney van den Bergh listed it in his catalog of reflection nebulae (1966), drawn from the Palomar Sky Survey. He chose nebulae lit by a star bright enough to appear in the Bonner and Cordoba star catalogs. The star that lights it is HD 156697, F0-2IV-Vn, magnitude 6.5. He rated it moderate in brightness and blue in color.
Finding vdB 111 from Rasalhague
vdB 111 lies 7.6° southwest of Rasalhague, the magnitude 2.1 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 111 is highest in the evening in July
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 84°S.
vdB 111 is 467 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 111 tonight left it about 467 years ago, around 1559 AD. It ranks 16 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (143 pc).
Objects within 6° of vdB 111
No other object on Go Astronomy's catalog pages lies within 6°.
