I haven't heard of this object until Jimi gave me a copy of this year's TSP Advanced Observer's list "Seeing Red" and I noticed something called the "Serpens Object, SVS 2". Of course, my curiosity was piqued and I placed it high on my observing list the first night observing at Lassen National Park last month with Jimi and others (Mark Johnston, Mark Wagner, Carter Scholz). The "Serpens Object" is a very red (continuum) reflection nebula illuminated by the pre-main sequence star [SVS76] Ser 2 = HBC 672. It is located within the core of the Serpens Molecular Cloud, a dusty star-forming region that includes several HH objects -- HH 458/459/478.

First I tracked down the nearby reflection nebula vdB 123, which I had observed a couple of times previously in my 18-inch. This reflection nebula was easily picked up at 175x and involves mag 9.8 HD 170634. The glow extends mainly northwest of the star (not seen to the south) in an oval shape 2'x1'. HD 170634 is collinear with three equally spaced double stars to the southwest! The closest pair is ∑2321 = 8.5/9.6 at 6", which lies 7' SW. In addition, ∑2324 = 9.0/9.4 at 2.4" lies 13' NE. The Serpens Object lies ~7' WNW, just west of the line connecting the double star ∑ 2321 and a mag 10.5 star 9' to its NNE.

This unusual Red Reflection Nebula was seen at 175x, knowing the exact position. It appeared extremely faint, small, round, ~15"-20" diameter. Using averted vision the glow popped ~20% of time, and was only seen for brief glimpses, though confirmed with certainty. Visually, there wasn't much to see, but it was still exciting to pick up such an obscure object.

Here are the coordinates if anyone wants to take a look and report back -- 18 29 56 +01 14 48 -- and here is the SDSS image (better quality in my full report at Adventures in Deep Space)

Serpens Red Nebula.jpg