vdB18
Reflection Nebula in Perseus
About
A small, faint blue reflection nebula in Perseus, midway between Algol and ξ Persei. A variable star, HD 22114 (also V496 Persei), lights it. The system is about 900 light-years away, on the Perseus molecular cloud's northern rim.
Imaging tips
- Framing runs 3030–5050 mm on APS-C, so it needs a long focal length and a fine pixel scale.
- It is faint: one imager used 5 hours of LRGB with 10-minute subs on a 12-inch f/3.6 astrograph, and another gathered 26 hours from two refractors.
- NGC 1342, a star cluster, lies about half a degree to the southwest, so a wider field shows both.
- Dark nebulae and several galaxies fill the surrounding region.
- Best in November; it peaks near 78° from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 8′
- Magnitude
- —
- Coordinates
- RA 3h 35.2m, Dec +38° 1′
- Framing, APS-C
- 3030–5050 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Nov
- Peak altitude
- 78° from 50°N, 87° from 35°N