The sky around vdB 119 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 119 is a reflection nebula in Sagittarius, 4,240 light-years away
vdB 119 (NGC 6590, NGC 6595, IC 4700) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Sagittarius, 4,240 light-years away. spans 4′ of sky, about 4.9 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in August.
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 119 is vdB 119 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 313095, B5, magnitude 11.0. He rated it very bright in brightness and moderately blue in color.
Finding vdB 119 from Kaus Borealis
vdB 119 lies 6.1° northwest of Kaus Borealis, the magnitude 2.8 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 119 is highest in the evening in August
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 southern hemisphere and north to about 70°N, and never sets south of 70°S.
vdB 119 is 4,240 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 119 tonight left it about 4,240 years ago. It ranks 137 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (1299 pc).
