About IC 1284
IC 1284 is a rare nebula. It sits in the constellation Sgr and shines at apparent magnitude 7.7.
A nebula: a cloud of interstellar gas and dust, thinner than the best vacuum ever made in a laboratory yet spanning light-years.
Rare nebula 36 EP
IC 1284
RA 274.4151° · Dec -19.6720° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Nebula +8
- Toward the galactic centre +8
- Bright deep-sky object +6
- Diffuse nebula +6
- Big on the sky +5
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 36
14 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Bright deep-sky object · +6
- Diffuse nebula · +6
- Toward the galactic centre · +8
- On the zodiac · +3
- Big on the sky · +5
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A nebula: a cloud of interstellar gas and dust, thinner than the best vacuum ever made in a laboratory yet spanning light-years.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Sagittarius.
- Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Nebular colours are chemistry made visible — red for hydrogen, teal for oxygen, blue where starlight is merely scattered.
How we came to know it
- The Index Catalogue. The IC was the 1895 and 1908 supplement to the NGC — the first catalogue in history to be filled largely with objects found on photographic plates rather than by eye.
Properties
- constellation
- Sgr
- dso type
- Neb
- mag
- 7.7
- name
- IC 1284
- size arcmin
- 16.98
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for IC 1284 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 7.7, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, IC 1284 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why IC 1284 is a rare nebula
IC 1284 scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Nebula, Bright deep-sky object, Diffuse nebula, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac and Big on the sky — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.