About NGC 2020
NGC 2020 is a common nebula. It sits in the constellation Dor.
An emission nebula, generating its own light: its gas is ionised by nearby stars and glows in its own right rather than reflecting anything.
Common nebula 16 EP
NGC 2020
RA 83.3025° · Dec -67.7159° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Nebula +8
- Emission nebula (glowing gas) +8
Total score 16
6 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Emission nebula (glowing gas) · +8
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. An emission nebula, generating its own light: its gas is ionised by nearby stars and glows in its own right rather than reflecting anything.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Dorado.
- 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 December — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. That signature crimson is hydrogen-alpha at 656 nanometres — electrons falling back onto protons, one photon at a time.
How we came to know it
- The New General Catalogue. Its NGC number comes from J. L. E. Dreyer's 1888 catalogue, itself built on decades of sky sweeps by William Herschel and his sister Caroline.
Properties
- constellation
- Dor
- dso type
- EmN
- name
- NGC 2020
- size arcmin
- 3.2
How to see it
Look for NGC 2020 in the constellation Dor.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 2020 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 NGC 2020 is a common nebula
NGC 2020 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Nebula and Emission nebula (glowing gas) — 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.