About NGC 6439
NGC 6439 is a rare nebula. It sits in the constellation Sgr and shines at apparent magnitude 12.6.
A planetary nebula: the shed outer atmosphere of a dying Sun-like star, lit from within by the naked stellar core left behind.
Rare nebula 41 EP
NGC 6439
RA 267.0825° · Dec -16.4789° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 5 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) +12
- Coming towards us +10
- Nebula +8
- Toward the galactic centre +8
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 41
9 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Nebula · +8
- Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) · +12
- Toward the galactic centre · +8
- On the zodiac · +3
- Coming towards us · +10
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.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 12.6 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.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Its teal-green comes from doubly-ionised oxygen at 501 nanometres, and its red from hydrogen at 656 — colours no ordinary object on Earth produces.
What's in a name
- A misleading name. 'Planetary nebula' is a 240-year-old mistake. William Herschel coined it in the 1780s because these round greenish discs resembled the planet Uranus he had just discovered. There are no planets involved whatsoever.
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
- Sgr
- dso type
- PN
- mag
- 12.6
- name
- NGC 6439
- radial velocity kms
- -109
- size arcmin
- 0.08
How to see it
Look for NGC 6439 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 12.6, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 6439 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 6439 is a rare nebula
NGC 6439 scores 41 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Nebula, Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell), Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac and Coming towards us — 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.