vdB 047 is a yellow-orange reflection nebula in northeastern Taurus 1.75 degrees northeast of the more famous M1. Its positional star is HD 37387 a magnitude 7.5 KIIb star. The nebula likely lies behind the star since it has pretty much the same color as the star indicating it is reflecting the light rather than scattering blue light due to the star being behind the nebula. The Sky puts the star, and thus the nebula, 3700 light-years distant.
This star is one of 4 that makes up the multiple star WDS STF 755. The AB pair is the blue pair 2.5 minutes southwest of the illuminating star. These two are separated by about 6" best I can tell. This pair is shown with a distance of 177 light years. They may be a true double, I've not investigated further. The fourth member of the WDS system is the reddish 10th magnitude star 1.3' south of the illuminating star. I can't find a distance for it but doubt it is related to the KIIb illuminating star.
The nebula is also known as GN 05.36.2. Some sources claim it is Sh2-243 though the position doesn't match. There is no known object at the position of Sh2-243. Still, its position is nearby so some think this might be what Sharpless saw. Though Sharpless objects are usually strong in hydrogen alpha light. This one has some very weak hydrogen alpha light in the southern part but it shines mostly by reflected starlight A KIIb star isn't going to ionize hydrogen gas so that emission isn't due to the illuminating star. The nebula is extremely faint in blue light, this may have fooled Sharpless into thinking he was seeing ionized hydrogen in the red POSS plate. I couldn't find a satisfactory answer to the question of Sh2-243. To me, the case for it being vdB 047 is pretty weak.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
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| The mostly reflection nebula vdB 65 is located in southern Auriga northeast of the more famous Sh2-241. I couldn't fit both into the same field of view. I took it separately and will process it next. I found only one distance estimate that puts it about 3600 light-years distant. I doubt the two are related as what few distance estimates I found for Sh2-241 put it some 4 times further away.
While vdB 65 is listed as a reflection nebula it seems to have some red hydrogen emission involved. It is strongest near the northeastern edge but I also see some near the core making the core of the nebula more yellow than I'd expect for a blue reflection nebula.
It appears to be an illuminated part of a much larger dust cloud that extends mostly to the southwest as Dobashi 4516 and 4517.
Three asteroids are in the image. Thanks to better than normal (for the last few months at least) one was a faint magnitude 20.9 per the Minor Planet Center. See the annotated image for details.
While seeing and transparency were better this night than I've had in months clouds were a problem. The luminance trails of the asteroids show a break when clouds pretty much blocked the view for the last two minutes of the second frame and first two minutes of the third. Later the blue frames were hit by clouds as well. To compensate I took three blue frames to try and increase the signal to noise ratio of the blue channel so it better matched the red and green frames.
This was my first March image. I can't recall if things went better that month but do see more images than in February so that's a good sign.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RG=2x10' B=3x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
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| I thought I was imaging just vdB 75 but then this nebula showed up to the west. It is GN 06.15.6. That is the only identification SIMBAD has for it at those coordinates. Move a bit and it has several others just west it's position. Some sources, SIMBAD included, claim it is IC 444. That isn't likely correct. IC 444 is missing. It was "discovered" by Max Wolf on September 25, 1892. He was using a 2.25" refractor. There's no way he could see this faint an object. It could be he was referring to vdB 75. My The Sky thinks so. But Wolf's coordinates for IC 444 are for a very blank region of the sky between IC 443 (a famous SN remnant which Wolf did discover that night but got the coordinates somewhat wrong) and vdB 75. Seligman offers the nebula north of Mu Geminorum, Sh2-249 as a possible IC 444 but never mentions vdB 75. I find both likely too faint for a 2.25" refractor. I suppose I should give these a try with my 2.4" but with the temperature outside running about -18C, I don't see that happening.
The nebula around HD 43836 is most certainly vdB 75. It is also GN 06.16.4 in case you are interested. The illuminating star is listed as B9II at SIMBAD but A0II in my The Sky. That's close but the disagreement surprised me. The Sky lists it as a double star. That may explain the difference if one includes both stars and the other just one. The Sky puts its distance at 8,583 light-years. If correct that would be about the distance to vdB 75 as well. The entire area is full of ionized hydrogen. The entire setting can be seen in Jim Thommes excellent wide field image of the area, http://jthommes.com/Astro/SH2-249.htm . Though he too calls the little nebula IC 444. He used an H-Alpha filter to bring out the red emission nebula while I used pure RGB colors as I was after the reflection nebula.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
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| HD 52329 is the likely illuminating star of vdB 87 a reflection and emission nebula in southern Monoceros southwest of M50. The distance to HD 52329 is shown by Hipparcos as 530 light-years. It is a B6V giant with plenty of energy to create the H alpha emission as well a the reflection portions of the nebula. There appear to be quite a few stars behind the nebula that may be highly reddened by it or other dust. SIMBAD lists it as 2MASS J07003226-0852020 -- Possible Globular Cluster. That survey has the benefit of IR which can look through dust to some extent. I suppose there could be a hidden globular there but rather doubt it.
To the southeast of vdB 87 is a small somewhat round nebula. SIMBAD lists it as [IBP2002] CC05 -- Possible Globular Cluster. This time there are only three faint stars behind it. Oddly I find no other designation for it. Three arc minutes to the southwest of this object is a blue star with a hint of blue fuzz around it. That, according to SIMBAD is NAME Riddle GN J0700.7-0858.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4X10' RGB=2X10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for VDB087VDB087, | 
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| VdB 111 is a reflection nebula in Ophiuchus around the star HD 156697. According to The Sky 6, the star is a rather white F0III-IV star. As the variable classification indicates it is a variable star that pulsates in size more than in brightness. The range is listed at 6.50 to 6.52 which would be hard to see visually. Since the nebula is very blue it would lie a bit in front of the star to have a color much bluer than the star itself. This is the same effect as the sky being blue from sunlight shining through it. Our star is even redder than this one yet creates a blue sky when it shines through it. When the nebula is behind the star so just illuminated by the star it takes on more closely the color of the star itself. The Sky 6 says the star is at a distance of 28,767,800 AU which would put it about 455 light years from us. This would be virtually the same as the nebula's distance. What few images of it I found on the net usually contain the comment that it is small and uninteresting. Guess I don't see it that way but then nearly everything out there I find interesting.
While there are some background galaxies NED had no redshift data on any, all being galaxies from the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) which rarely had redshift data.
To see it in a wide field setting with the faint nebulosity in the area see Tom Davis' image at: http://tvdavisastropics.com/astroimages-1_0000fb.htm
There's one asteroid down in the lower right corner of the image. It is 18th magnitude (215122) 1999 LG4. As usual, conditions were poor so even this rather bright asteroid doesn't stand out very well. Normally an 18th magnitude asteroid would be very obvious with the color frames coloring the sky's background beyond the luminance trail. Fortunately, vdB 111 is a rather bright reflection nebula. Though I likely lost its fainter outer parts to poor sky conditions.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for VDB111VDB111, | 
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| vdB 123/GN 18.27.9 is a very blue reflection nebula in Serpens Cauda about 836 light-years distant. This is based on The Sky's distance for the illuminating star HD 170634 of 52,888,500AU. To the west is an orange nebula. Not H alpha pink. It is also a reflection nebula. The only identification of the nebula I could find in SIMBAD was Name Ser(pens) (Reflection) Nebula/Name Ser (mol) Cloud Core and GN 18.27.4, each with a slightly different position all inside the nebula. So why is it so orange? I couldn't find an answer. It could be seen through a lot of dust that reddens it to this color or possibly the star in front that is illuminating it really is red and not dust reddened so the nebula is taking on its color. But it seems too faint though the illuminating star of McNeil's nebula is very dim from our vantage point due to dust. I have no answer here. If anyone has an idea let us know.
The colors of the field seem odd. Most stars are greatly reddened by dust yet there's a large blue haze over much of the field from the large, but dim, extent of the vdB 123 lying in front of the reddening dust it would seem. In places, all stars are blocked. SIMBAD lists a ton of young stellar objects and HH objects in the area, most apparently dust-shrouded as I see nothing of most of them in my image. Those I do see are labeled in the annotated image. Y*O for Young Stellar Objects and HH for the one Herbig Haro object I could identify. Note nearly all the stars and Y*Os have the same color. The YSOs were mostly K and M stars so are rightly red but there should be some variation but there isn't. I think this a good sign the color is mostly from dust reddening.
There were a very few YSOs that were A stars so should have been rather blue but even they were redder than an A star should be, another indication of dust reddening. When I adjusted those to be about right the blue of the reflection nebula went way too blue indicating it is likely in front of much of the dust. The annotated image notes the spectral type of a few of these young stellar objects
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
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| vdB 124 is a reflection nebula around the star HD 170740 in Scutum about 700 light years away. It is the central part of the larger reflection nebula IC 1287. At magnitude 5.7 the B2V star made imaging this one difficult. I get nasty reflections from the corrector of the SCT with strong blue stars that fills much of my field with a round blue glare with a bright ring edge. I had to do a lot of processing to remove it and still leave the nebula.
Its declination near 11 degrees south declination limits my imaging time and resolution. I only was able to get one night on it within an hour of the meridian. It needs a lot more to catch the outer parts of IC 1287. That just didn't happen when the weather failed to cooperate. A common story for 2012.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
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| This field in western Vulpecula is centered on HD 182918, the illuminating star for vdB 126. The Sky has its distance at about 2900 light-years. It is located in the Milky Way but in a dust lane which helps hold down the stars at the same time reddening them quite a bit. Three dark clouds cross the image right to left they are Dobashi 1980, 1982 and 1988.
The only other object identified at SIMBAD of interest is what SIMBAD calls PN PM2-41 a possible planetary nebula. If it is it is the strangest planetary nebula I've seen. It has a cometary-like tail going to the south and above it at the orange star above is a faint arc of nebulosity that appears related. SIMBAD sites three papers on this object, one is the original IRAS discovery of it. The other two, however, are on protostars in which it is listed as IRAS 19247+2238. The authors are quite sure it is a protostar, exactly the opposite of a planetary nebula. The former is the birth of a star while the latter the death of a star. This article considers both the upper and lower object to be protostars that IRAS' low resolution saw as one object rather than two. The later paper on this is seen here: http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/138/5/1193/pdf/1538-3881_138_5_1193.pdf PN PM2-41 looks typical of some protostars I've imaged in the past and nothing like any planetary I've taken so I'll go with these two papers that consider it a protostar. The paper was unable to come up with a distance measurement for either, unfortunately.
This image was taken when the skies were smoky from Canadian wildfires. It was less the night it was taken but it has likely skewed my color balance somewhat. It certainly reduced my limiting magnitude by at least one magnitude, maybe a bit more. Still, this was the first July night I could even collect photons as prior nights only stars 2.5 magnitude or brighter were visible at the zenith. No stars were seen below 45 degrees, just the planet Venus and a hint of Jupiter. Earlier in the month when I looked at the moon it was fainter and redder than at all but the darkest total eclipse I've seen. Yet the fires were about 800 km away with most over 1000 km.
My The Sky6 Pro's database locates "SAC vdB 126" about 13' east and a bit south of its real position. Those slewing to it with that program should use HD 182918 instead.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
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| vdB 128 is a mostly reflection nebula around a pulsating variable star in Cygnus. I found little distance information but one source lists a very iffy estimate of about 3600 light-years (1100 parsecs). I found revised Hipparcos data saying 0.00057" for the parallax of the illuminating star. If right that puts it some 5700 light-years away. The star is V1768 Cyg to variable star observers. SAO 69362 or HD 190603 are more general catalog entries for it. At magnitude 5.6 it was a major pain to deal with! Fortunately, my new filters eliminated most reflection issues.
Objects in the vdB catalog, while classed as reflection nebula often have some or even a lot of H alpha emission as well. Note the red streaks of H alpha throughout this reflection nebula.
This object is a good opportunity for me to again address what I call the f ratio myth. That is, that the faster the optics (lower the f ratio) the less exposure time you need for faint objects using a CCD. That is true of typical snapshots with an ordinary camera, digital or film. With such a camera taking an earthly picture at f/8 you do need 4 times the exposure compared to f/4. This isn't necessarily true when applied to CCD images of the night sky. Though many can't seem to shake this myth.
A camera lens changes its aperture when "stopping down". Thus it gets less light and needs more exposure time. With a telescope, the focal length changes via extenders and compressor lenses. This doesn't change the amount of light being seen by the sensor for a given area say 0.5" of arc. A zoom camera lens does the same adjusting its aperture internally as you zoom in and out. For some reason imagers use up to 10 to 1 zoom lenses without seeing a light loss but seem to think a focal length change of even 2:1 is fatal for deep sky imaging and get an f/3 to an f/5 system for imaging rather than an f/10 one then complain the image scale is too small. Edit: New CMOS cameras with very small pixels give these back the image scale they want.
Choose a fast system for its wide field of view not because it will save you imaging time. Aperture is what will reduce or increase your imaging time, not f ratio at a given image scale.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for VDB128VDB128, | 
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| vdB 133 is a nebula surrounding and lit by 44 Cygni, a 6th magnitude star. It consists of both a reflection nebula GN 20.29.1 and the HII region LBN 076.41-01.45. 44 Cygni is an F5Iab star. Much whiter than most stars that illuminate reflection nebula. It may be in front of the nebula as the color is about that of the star rather than blue that is usually seen due to scattering from starlight passing through the dust and gas. F5 tells us it is a somewhat hotter star than our sun. The Iab means it is in the supergiant class and the ab that it is of intermediate luminosity, a means luminous while b less luminous so ab is in the middle someplace. A famous Iab star is Betelgeuse.
44 Cygni is listed at about 1600 light-years so that is likely the distance to the nebula as well. The whole field is full of HII emission but for some reason, I didn't pick it up. I had a lot of red airglow that night which likely helped hide it. Since I was after the reflection nebula I didn't worry about its absence.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
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