About Pencil Nebula
Pencil Nebula is a rare nebula. It sits in the constellation Vel.
An H II region: a cloud of hydrogen being ionised by the ultraviolet flood from hot young stars inside it. Every one is a star factory caught mid-production.
Rare nebula 35 EP
Pencil Nebula
RA 135.0706° · Dec -45.9481° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Star-forming region +14
- Nebula +8
- Has a proper name +8
- Big on the sky +5
Total score 35
15 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Has a proper name · +8
- Star-forming region · +14
- Big on the sky · +5
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. An H II region: a cloud of hydrogen being ionised by the ultraviolet flood from hot young stars inside it. Every one is a star factory caught mid-production.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Vela.
- 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 February — 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.
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
- Vel
- dso type
- HII
- name
- Pencil Nebula
- named
- yes
- size arcmin
- 30
How to see it
Look for Pencil Nebula in the constellation Vel.
Like any astronomical target, Pencil 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 Pencil Nebula is a rare nebula
Pencil Nebula scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Nebula, Has a proper name, Star-forming region and Big on the sky — 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.