About IC 2631
IC 2631 is a trash nebula. It sits in the constellation Cha.
A nebula: a cloud of interstellar gas and dust, thinner than the best vacuum ever made in a laboratory yet spanning light-years.
Trash nebula 14 EP
IC 2631
RA 167.4700° · Dec -76.6143° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Nebula +8
- Diffuse nebula +6
Total score 14
1 more point to reach Common.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Diffuse nebula · +6
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
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Chamaeleon.
- Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — 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
- Cha
- dso type
- Neb
- name
- IC 2631
How to see it
Look for IC 2631 in the constellation Cha.
Like any astronomical target, IC 2631 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 2631 is a trash nebula
IC 2631 scores 14 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Nebula and Diffuse nebula — 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.