Blue Snowball Nebula (NGC 7662)
A bright planetary nebula in Andromeda, appearing as a small, distinctly blue disk in telescopes, resembling a snowball. High magnification can reveal some internal structure.
Planetary nebula in Andromeda. Magnitude 8.3.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 54° above the northern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 51° above the northern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 10 Sep, 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: 17″, 1/110 of the Moon's width (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Brightness: magnitude 8.3. Fainter than the faintest stars in Georgetown (4.3) and Lethem (6.0): binoculars or a telescope.
- Distance: 5,600 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 5,600 years ago.
Apparent size from OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), CC-BY-SA-4.0.
What it is made of
- Type
- Planetary Nebula
- Distance
- Approx. 5,600 Lightyears
- True size
- Approx. 0.3 Lightyears diameter (inner shell)
- Ionized Oxygen (OIII): Very strong emission, gives characteristic blue color
- Inner and Outer Shells: Concentric structures visible
- Central Variable Star: Hot, faint white dwarf
More deep-sky objects: Little Dumbbell Nebula (M76) · Dumbbell Nebula (M27) · Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) · Ring Nebula (M57) · Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009) · Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)