When I first stumbled across vdB 4 (many years ago) I thought it was an amazing and eerie field. There were very few high resolution images at the time. The full extent of the complex extends well beyond the field of view. Most striking are the finger-like projections that are likely being eroded by photodissociation- especially from cluster of luminous stars (NGC 225) on the right side of the field. These are young stars and the gas and dust in the area is likely to be natal. Indeed, the fraction of stars in the cluster that are binaries is 1/2. This fraction will likely decrease with time due to gravitational interactions- but as this is a young cluster stars are still paired up.

LRGB 10 : 2 : 2 : 2 Hours