The sky around vdB 38 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 38 is a reflection nebula in Orion, 1,280 light-years away
vdB 38 (LBN 866, Ced 44, LBN 867) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, 1,280 light-years away. spans 3′ of sky, about 1.1 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 38 is vdB 38 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 34989, B1V, magnitude 5.8. He rated it moderate in brightness and intermediate in color.
Finding vdB 38 from Bellatrix
vdB 38 lies 2.2° north of Bellatrix, the magnitude 1.6 star. That is within one binocular field.
vdB 38 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 82°S.
vdB 38 is 1,280 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 38 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 (391 pc).
