IC 2177 (also known as vdB 93 ) is an emission and reflection nebula visible in the constellation of the Unicorn .

It is identified on the western edge of the Seagull Nebula , a large region H II connected to a molecular nebula complex in which star-formingphenomena take place, and ideally constitutes the “head” of the bird; its position is about 3 ° to ENE of θ Canis Majoris , an orange star of fourth magnitude . It appears as a cloud with a rounded shape, with a dense dark line that crosses it from the north and a luminous arched band that stretches southwards; its brightness allows it to be easily photographed even with medium power amateur instruments and observed through special filters. The mass of the cloud is about 16,000 M _⊙ and is placed to the west of the long luminous trail of the body of the Seagull Nebula;the gas it contains is partly ionized and partly illuminated by reflection due to the radiation coming in particular from HD 53367, a blue giant withextremely high and extremely young emissions ; this star is the primary component of a binary system that includes this and a smaller star, surrounded by a protoplanetary disk , which performs a very eccentric orbit around the primary. This star system is part of the OB Canis Major R1 association, a subgroup of the larger Canis Major OB1 association, whose main feature is the link with extensive reflection nebulae.