October 2024 - Picture of the Month
Van den Bergh 152 (and the Wolf's Cave Nebula) in Cepheus
Well, there's a lot going on in David's image which shows nearly three degrees of the sky in Cepheus. Such a rich and colourful view of nice large piece of one of my favourite constellations made this my Picture of the Month. It also contains many of examples of my favourite kinds of deep-sky objects.
The main feature of this month's article, Van den Bergh (VdB) 152 (also known as CED 201), is glowing at the lower end of that long dark nebula (Barnard 175 aka the Wolf's Cave Nebula it seems), all of which is about 1,400 light-years from us.
The reflection nebula VdB 152 is illuminated by BD+69 1231, a magnitude 9.4 type ELL variable star (CzeV4335). It's a close binary system which is one of the class of Rotating ellipsoidal variables, but it probably isn't worth your time observing since its period is less than a day and amplitude only a few of thousandths of a magnitude.
Speaking of stars, there's also a past Double Star of the Month from September 2021 nearby, STF 2883, that bright one just to the right of VdB 152.
This end of B 175 comprises a Bok globule which hides the Herbig-Haro object HH 450 just to the left of VdB 152. A jet being driven by the formation of a new star has been detected within it, as it collides with local dust and gas. NOIRLab have a close-up from Kitt Peak National Observatory which reveals this feature well.
It also shows the red filaments an expanding supernova remnant (SNR 110.3+11.3). Whilst you can't see the jet in David's image, the supernova remnant is just visible arcing all the way towards that yellow star on the left edge of the field, BD+70 1240.
James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.
