The sky around vdB 134 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 134 is a reflection nebula in Cygnus, 1,280 light-years away
vdB 134 (LBN 379) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cygnus, 1,280 light-years away. spans 44′ of sky, about 16 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in September.
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 134 is vdB 134 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 Omega1 Cyg, HD 195556, B2.5IV, magnitude 4.9. He rated it faint in brightness and blue in color.
Finding vdB 134 from Deneb
vdB 134 lies 4.1° northwest of Deneb, the magnitude 1.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 134 is highest in the evening in September
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 41°S, and never sets north of 41°N.
vdB 134 is 1,280 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 134 tonight left it about 1,280 years ago, around 746 AD. It ranks 63 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (393 pc).
