The sky around Embryo Nebula 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.
Embryo Nebula is a reflection nebula in Perseus, 947 light-years away
Embryo Nebula (vdB 17, Phantom Tiara, NGC 1333, LBN 741, Ced 16) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Perseus, 947 light-years away. spans 20′ of sky, about 5.4 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in December.
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.
Embryo Nebula is vdB 17 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+30 549, B8-B9P, magnitude 10.5. He rated it bright in brightness and blue in color.
Finding Embryo Nebula from ζ Per
Embryo Nebula lies 5.3° west of ζ Per, the magnitude 2.8 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
Embryo Nebula is highest in the evening in December
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 59°S, and never sets north of 59°N.
Embryo Nebula is 947 light-years away
The light seen from Embryo Nebula tonight left it about 947 years ago, around 1079 AD. It ranks 37 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3, Hunt and Reffert 2023.
