VdB 152 (also known as Cederblad 201) is a blue reflection nebula that glows atop of a dark Bok globule (1) called Barnard 175. This complex, also called Wolf’s Cave, spans about 7 light-years and is located about 1,400 light years-away from Earth in the northern constellation of Cepheus.

The “vdB” stands for “van den Bergh”; vdB 152 is reflection nebula number 152 in Sidney van den Bergh’s Catalog of Reflection Nebulae, created in 1966 and that contains 158 reflection nebulae. Barnard 175 was cataloged by E. E. Barnard in “A Photographic Atlas of Selected Areas of the Milky Way” from photographs made at Lick Observatory from 1889-1895, but not printed until 1913.

Described as a “dusty curtain” or “ghostly apparition”, vdB 152 is very faint. Near the edge of a large molecular cloud, interstellar dust in the region blocks most of the starlight behind it or scatter light from the embedded bright star (the 9.3 magnitude star B.D. +69° 1231) giving parts of the nebula a characteristic blue color. Ultraviolet light from the star is also thought to cause a dim reddish luminescence in the nebular dust.

Though stars do form in molecular clouds, this star seems to have only accidentally wandered into the area, as its measured velocity through space is very different from the cloud’s velocity.

Embedded in the top right side of the nebula is the Herbig Haro object (2) HH 450, a jet emitted from a newly forming star. The thin, red filaments of a huge supernova remnant, SNR 110.3+11.3, in the upper-right corner of the image, appear to be approaching vdB 152 and may or may not collide with it in the future.