Described as a "dusty curtain" or "ghostly apparition", mysterious reflection nebula VdB 152 really
is very faint. Far from your neighborhood on this Halloween Night, the cosmic phantom is nearly 1,400
light-years away. Also cataloged as Ced 201, it lies along the northern Milky Way in the royal constellation
Cepheus. Near the edge of a large molecular cloud, pockets of interstellar dust in the region block light
from background stars or scatter light from the embedded bright star 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..
[Text from APOD]