The sky around vdB 89 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 89 is a reflection nebula in Canis Major, 3,680 light-years away
vdB 89 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Canis Major, 3,680 light-years away. spans 4.4′ of sky, about 4.7 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 89 is vdB 89 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-12 1748, magnitude 10.3. He rated it very faint in brightness and blue in color.
Finding vdB 89 from Sirius
vdB 89 lies 6.2° northeast of Sirius, the magnitude -1.4 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 89 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 southern hemisphere and north to about 78°N, and never sets south of 78°S.
vdB 89 is 3,680 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 89 tonight left it about 3,680 years ago. It ranks 131 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: CMa R1, Gaia DR3 1,128 pc (2024), as used for Sh2-292 in sharpless.csv.
