The van den Bergh catalog

In the January 2009 issue of Astronomy, Thomas V. Davis wrote about the van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae. Here is a list of all 158 objects Canadian astronomer Sidney van den Bergh cataloged.Visually, you can expect to see the nebulae van den Bergh classified as VBR (very bright), BR (bright), and M (moderate). Those with other surface brightnesses will challenge even the largest telescopes.These objects make great targets for astroimagers, however. CCD cameras coupled to medium-sized…