The sky around vdB 136 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 136 is a reflection nebula in Cygnus, 2,830 light-years away
vdB 136 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cygnus, 2,830 light-years away. spans 8.6′ of sky, about 7.1 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 136 is vdB 136 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 196819, K3II, magnitude 7.5. He rated it very faint in brightness and red in color.
Finding vdB 136 from Deneb
vdB 136 lies 3.3° south of Deneb, the magnitude 1.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 136 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 48°S, and never sets north of 48°N.
vdB 136 is 2,830 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 136 tonight left it about 2,830 years ago. It ranks 106 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (869 pc).
