RA 210.9225° · Dec 54.3180° · openngc
5 more points to reach Rare.
NGC 5461 is an uncommon nebula. It sits in the constellation UMa and shines at apparent magnitude 14.38.
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.
Look for NGC 5461 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 14.38, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 5461 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.
NGC 5461 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Nebula, Star-forming region, Never sets (northern circumpolar) and Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) — 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.