The sky around vdB 24 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 24 is a reflection nebula in Perseus, 1,390 light-years away
vdB 24 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Perseus, 1,390 light-years away. spans 9′ of sky, about 3.6 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in January.
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 24 is vdB 24 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 275877, A2II+B6, magnitude 9.3. He rated it moderate in brightness and moderately blue in color.
Finding vdB 24 from Áldu
vdB 24 lies 1.9° southwest of Áldu, the magnitude 2.9 star. That is within one binocular field.
vdB 24 is highest in the evening in January
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 51°S, and never sets north of 51°N.
vdB 24 is 1,390 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 24 tonight left it about 1,390 years ago, around 636 AD. It ranks 76 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (425 pc).
