About IC 4592
IC 4592 is an epic nebula. It sits in the constellation Sco and shines at apparent magnitude 3.9.
A reflection nebula. It produces no light at all; it is dust catching the glare of a nearby star and scattering it back at us.
Epic nebula 53 EP
IC 4592
RA 242.9945° · Dec -19.4547° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Bright enough for the unaided eye +14
- Bigger on the sky than the full Moon +12
- Reflection nebula +10
- Nebula +8
- Bright deep-sky object +6
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 53
25 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Bright deep-sky object · +6
- Reflection nebula · +10
- On the zodiac · +3
- Bigger on the sky than the full Moon · +12
- Bright enough for the unaided eye · +14
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A reflection nebula. It produces no light at all; it is dust catching the glare of a nearby star and scattering it back at us.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 3.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Scorpius.
- 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 May — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. It looks blue for exactly the reason Earth's sky is blue: fine dust scatters short blue wavelengths far more efficiently than long red ones.
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
- Sco
- dso type
- RfN
- mag
- 3.9
- name
- IC 4592
- size arcmin
- 60
How to see it
Look for IC 4592 in the constellation Sco. At apparent magnitude 3.9, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, IC 4592 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 4592 is an epic nebula
IC 4592 scores 53 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 25 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Nebula, Bright deep-sky object, Reflection nebula, On the zodiac, Bigger on the sky than the full Moon and Bright enough for the unaided eye — 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.