About Monkey Head Nebula
Monkey Head Nebula is a rare nebula. It sits in the constellation Ori.
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 40 EP
Monkey Head Nebula
RA 92.3484° · Dec 20.6596° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 5 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Bigger on the sky than the full Moon +12
- Nebula +8
- Has a proper name +8
- Diffuse nebula +6
- In Orion's hunting ground +6
Total score 40
10 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Has a proper name · +8
- Diffuse nebula · +6
- In Orion's hunting ground · +6
- Bigger on the sky than the full Moon · +12
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 Orion.
- Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
- 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. Nebular colours are chemistry made visible — red for hydrogen, teal for oxygen, blue where starlight is merely scattered.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
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
- Ori
- dso type
- Neb
- name
- Monkey Head Nebula
- named
- yes
- size arcmin
- 40
How to see it
Look for Monkey Head Nebula in the constellation Ori.
Like any astronomical target, Monkey Head Nebula 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 Monkey Head Nebula is a rare nebula
Monkey Head Nebula scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Nebula, Has a proper name, Diffuse nebula, In Orion's hunting ground and Bigger on the sky than the full Moon — 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.