About IC 4605
IC 4605 is a rare nebula. It sits in the constellation Sco and shines at apparent magnitude 4.7.
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 42 EP
IC 4605
RA 247.5520° · Dec -25.1152° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Bright enough for the unaided eye +14
- Nebula +8
- Bright deep-sky object +6
- Diffuse nebula +6
- Big on the sky +5
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 42
8 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Bright deep-sky object · +6
- Diffuse nebula · +6
- On the zodiac · +3
- Big on the sky · +5
- Bright enough for the unaided eye · +14
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 4.7 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. 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
- Sco
- dso type
- Neb
- mag
- 4.7
- name
- IC 4605
- size arcmin
- 30
How to see it
Look for IC 4605 in the constellation Sco. At apparent magnitude 4.7, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, IC 4605 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 4605 is a rare nebula
IC 4605 scores 42 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Nebula, Bright deep-sky object, Diffuse nebula, On the zodiac, Big on the sky 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.