VdB 152 Region

Friday , 24, January 2020 Leave a comment
VdB 152 Region

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Object Name: VdB 152 Region

Distance: 1,400 Light Years

Magnitude: 8.8

Size: 5×7 Arc Minutes

Telescope: Borg 71

Camera: QSI683

Mount: AP1100

Exposures: L 22×300 Bin 1, R 39×150 Bin 2, G 32×150 Bin 2, B 27×150 Bin 2

This image was captured from my home in a Bortle 6 zone. Luckily I did not have any issues with light pollution gradients in this image. 

VdB 152 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. It is about 1,400 light years away and is a dim object set in a field of dust known as the Cepheus Flare. Surrounding stars in this area are also discolored as a result of all this dust. BD+69 1231 is the source star that illuminates the reflection nebula and can be seen in the cavity of the nebula. Embedded in this nebula is HH 450, a Herbig-Haro object. Herbig-Haro objects are supersonic outflows from YSO’s that collide with interstellar medium to create compressed lines of material. These show best in images that contain Ha and SII data. It is barely visible in my image but can be seen as a reddish blob to the left of the source illumination star at the dark/reflection nebula boundary. HH 450 is only 33” in length and is only resolved in large telescopes.

Barnard 175 is the cometary-shaped dark dust cloud that tails away from the nebula and is listed as a Bok Globule. A Bok globule is a region of dark cool dust and gas. The densest part of Barnard 175 is approximately 5’ x 7’ in size but the tail extends another 30’. The entire dust complex of Barnard 175 is moving at a different speed than the illuminating source of VdB 152. It was discovered that these two objects are merely passing each other at a speed of 11.7 kms.

The thin red filaments beginning in the upper-left corner of my image and ending at the reflection nebula are the remnants of a supernova explosion. It is cataloged as SNR G110.3 +11.3 and is brightest at the area that intersects VdB 152. This indicates some interaction between the two objects and that their distances from Earth are about the same.

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