← Back to dex
Epic nebula 59 EP

IC 4673

RA 270.8267° · Dec -27.1061° · openngc

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 7 badges
59 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) +12
  • Its dying star is still visible +12
  • Coming towards us +10
  • Nebula +8
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 59

19 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Nebula · +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) · +12
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Coming towards us · +10
  • Its dying star is still visible · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A planetary nebula: the shed outer atmosphere of a dying Sun-like star, lit from within by the naked stellar core left behind.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 13 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 68.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 6.1 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

central star mag
17.6
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
3875.8883
dso type
PN
mag
13
name
IC 4673
radial velocity kms
-15
size arcmin
0.25

About IC 4673

IC 4673 is an epic nebula. It lies about 3,875.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr and shines at apparent magnitude 13.

A planetary nebula: the shed outer atmosphere of a dying Sun-like star, lit from within by the naked stellar core left behind.

How to see it

Look for IC 4673 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 13, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, IC 4673 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 4673 is an epic nebula

IC 4673 scores 59 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 19 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Nebula, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell), Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Coming towards us and Its dying star is still visible — 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.