The XY Persei nebula (vdB 24)

[Steve Gottlieb]

Last night I took a look at vdB 24 = [B77] 51, a reflection nebula surrounding XY Per, a young Herbig Ae/Be star. This object is one of the YSO's (young stellar objects) featured in Reiner's excellent "Strange Young Stars".

Here's what I found...
At 200x, a faint but easily seen reflection nebula fanned out in a wide angle to the south of XY Persei. The size was difficult to estimate, but roughly 3'-3.5' in diameter.

I didn't try any filters, as I assumed there wouldn't be a positive response, but now I wish I had. I'm curious if others have looked for this object? The coordinates for XY Persei (a close double with components 9.7/10.6 at 1.2") is 03 49 36 +38 59. I believe the brighter star is the Herbig Ae/Be type.

The visual portion that was evident is the blue diamond-shaped region in Adam Block's image below.

vdB 24.jpg

[Ivan Maly]

Interesting observation, and indeed an excellent guide there by Reiner.

[reiner]

Hi Steve,

thanks for bringing this one up. A very interesting object that I haven't looked at for two or three years.

I haven't tried any filters either. The RN was quite obvious during my observations with a dark band towards NW. On the DSS, the part W of the young star looked a bit like a crescent, but I was not able to see this shape at the eyepiece. On the newer images by Capella or Adam Block, this feature is not standing out, either.