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Rare nebula 46 EP

Cave Nebula

RA 344.4750° · Dec 62.5183° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
46 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Star-forming region +14
  • Bigger on the sky than the full Moon +12
  • Nebula +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Total score 46

4 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Nebula · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Star-forming region · +14
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Bigger on the sky than the full Moon · +12

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 Cepheus.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around September — 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.

Properties

constellation
Cep
dso type
HII
name
Cave Nebula
named
yes
size arcmin
50

Nearby objects

About Cave Nebula

Cave Nebula is a rare nebula. It sits in the constellation Cep.

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.

How to see it

Look for Cave Nebula in the constellation Cep.

Like any astronomical target, Cave 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 Cave Nebula is a rare nebula

Cave Nebula scores 46 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Nebula, Has a proper name, Star-forming region, Never sets (northern circumpolar) 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.