The sky around vdB 154 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 154 is a reflection nebula in Cepheus, 3,040 light-years away
vdB 154 (LBN 523, DG 186) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus, 3,040 light-years away. spans 15′ of sky, about 13 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in October.
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 154 is vdB 154 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 BD+64 1677, B2IV-III, magnitude 8.8. He rated it faint in brightness and blue in color.
Finding vdB 154 from ι Cep
vdB 154 lies 2.0° west of ι Cep, the magnitude 3.5 star. That is within one binocular field.
vdB 154 is highest in the evening in October
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 25°S, and never sets north of 25°N.
vdB 154 is 3,040 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 154 tonight left it about 3,040 years ago. It ranks 118 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (932 pc).
