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Rare nebula 40 EP

Coalsack Nebula

RA 187.8292° · Dec -63.7433° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Dark nebula (a hole in the stars) +16
  • Nebula +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Under the Southern Cross +8
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Nebula · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Dark nebula (a hole in the stars) · +16
  • Under the Southern Cross · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A dark nebula — cold, dense dust so opaque that it blots out everything behind it. You see it only as a hole in the stars.

Find it in the sky

  • Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Crux.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. It has no colour of its own. Astronomers found these clouds are not gaps in the galaxy but obstacles in front of it.

What's in a name

  • Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.

Properties

constellation
Cru
dso type
DrkN
name
Coalsack Nebula
named
yes

Nearby objects

About Coalsack Nebula

Coalsack Nebula is a rare nebula. It sits in the constellation Cru.

A dark nebula — cold, dense dust so opaque that it blots out everything behind it. You see it only as a hole in the stars.

How to see it

Look for Coalsack Nebula in the constellation Cru.

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

Coalsack Nebula scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Nebula, Has a proper name, Dark nebula (a hole in the stars) and Under the Southern Cross — 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.