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Uncommon nebula 28 EP

Phantom Streak Nebula

RA 285.6542° · Dec -0.4494° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) +12
  • Nebula +8
  • Has a proper name +8
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Nebula · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) · +12

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 11.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Aquila.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around July — 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.
  • 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
Aql
dso type
PN
mag
11.5
name
Phantom Streak Nebula
named
yes
radial velocity kms
43
redshift
0.0001
size arcmin
0.13

Nearby objects

About Phantom Streak Nebula

Phantom Streak Nebula is an uncommon nebula. It sits in the constellation Aql and shines at apparent magnitude 11.5.

A planetary nebula: the shed outer atmosphere of a dying Sun-like star, lit from within by the naked stellar core left behind.

How to see it

Look for Phantom Streak Nebula in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 11.5, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, Phantom Streak 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 Phantom Streak Nebula is an uncommon nebula

Phantom Streak Nebula scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Nebula, Has a proper name and Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) — 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.