  The pulsar wind nebula (PWN) associated with the Vela pulsar is a bright
source in the radio, X-ray and gamma-ray bands, but not in the optical. This
source is very near, lying at a distance of 290 pc, as inferred from the radio
and optical parallax measurements of the pulsar. Knowledge of the brightness
and structure of the Vela PWN in optical is important in order to constrain the
underlying particle spectrum (and possibly the B-field properties and particle
losses) associated with this extended source. We use results from the Digital
Sky Survey, as well as results obtained using the SAAO 1.0 m telescope equipped
with an imaging CCD (STE4) and BV filters, in an attempt to measure optical
radiation from Vela X. To enlarge our field of view, we constructed a mosaic
consisting of 3 x 3 frames around the pulsar position. We present spectral
measurements from the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), Fermi Large
Area Telescope (LAT), ASCA, Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Very Large Telescope
(VLT), New Technology Telescope (NTT), and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP), in addition to our optical results. Using these data, we investigate
whether or not the radio synchrotron component can be smoothly extrapolated to
the optical band. This would constrain the electron population to consist of
either a single or multiple components, representing a significant advancement
in our understanding of this complex multiwavelength source.
