The sky around vdB 63 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 63 is a reflection nebula in Orion, 1,270 light-years away
vdB 63 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, 1,270 light-years away. spans 1.2′ of sky, about 0.4 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 63 is vdB 63 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 288309, K, magnitude 9.3. He rated it faint in brightness and moderately red in color.
Finding vdB 63 from Betelgeuse
vdB 63 lies 5.5° south of Betelgeuse, the magnitude 0.5 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 63 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 88°S.
vdB 63 is 1,270 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 63 tonight left it about 1,270 years ago, around 756 AD. It ranks 58 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (389 pc).
