The sky around vdB 56 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 56 is a reflection nebula in Taurus, 1,110 light-years away
vdB 56 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Taurus, 1,110 light-years away. spans 2.4′ of sky, about 0.8 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in February.
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 56 is vdB 56 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 38065, A2V, magnitude 9.2. He rated it bright in brightness and blue in color.
Finding vdB 56 from Betelgeuse
vdB 56 lies 9.4° north of Betelgeuse, the magnitude 0.5 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
vdB 56 is highest in the evening in February
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 74°S, and never sets north of 74°N.
vdB 56 is 1,110 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 56 tonight left it about 1,110 years ago, around 916 AD. It ranks 46 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (340 pc).
Objects within 6° of vdB 56
No other object on Go Astronomy's catalog pages lies within 6°.
