Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543)
A bright and structurally complex planetary nebula in Draco. Its intricate details and greenish hue are best appreciated with a telescope.
Planetary nebula in Draco. Magnitude 8.1.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 30° above the northern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 27° above the northern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 18 Jun, in the middle of its season. The page works out tonight's rise, highest point and set for both towns in Guyana time (UTC-4), and where the Moon is.
What you'll see
- Your eyes: Not visible to the eye.
- 10x50 binoculars: Looks like a faint star; it needs a telescope.
- A small telescope (80 to 100 mm): A small bright disc at 100x or more, often blue-green.
- A camera: Tiny on camera: it needs 2,000 mm or more of focal length on a tracking mount.
How big, how bright, how far
- Size on the sky: 54″, 1/35 of the Moon's width (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Brightness: magnitude 8.1. Fainter than the faintest stars in Georgetown (4.3) and Lethem (6.0): binoculars or a telescope.
- Distance: 3,300 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 3,300 years ago.
Apparent size from OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), CC-BY-SA-4.0.
What it is made of
- Type
- Planetary Nebula
- Distance
- Approx. 3,300 Lightyears
- True size
- Approx. 0.3 Lightyears diameter (inner nebula)
- Ionized Oxygen (OIII): Bright green/blue core
- Ionized Nitrogen (NII): Reddish outer filaments and jets
- Central Wolf-Rayet type Star: Hot, massive star shedding outer layers
More deep-sky objects: Ring Nebula (M57) · Owl Nebula (M97) · Dumbbell Nebula (M27) · Blue Snowball Nebula (NGC 7662) · Little Dumbbell Nebula (M76) · Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009)