c6-1 — Hubble · Caldwell 6 · NASA, ESA, HEIC, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain) and Z. Tsvetanov (NASA)

Cat's Eye Nebula

Nebula in Draco · 3,300 light-years

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Type	Nebula
Constellation	Draco
Right ascension	17h 58m 33s
Declination	+66° 38′
Object distance	3,300 light-years
Apparent magnitude	9
Apparent size	0.9′ (arc-minutes)
Approx. true diameter	0.9 light-years across
Also known as	C6 · NGC 6543

Caldwell 6, popularly known as Cat's Eye Nebula, is a nebula (NGC 6543) in Draco — a luminous cloud of interstellar gas and dust. It appears as number 6 in the Caldwell catalogue, Sir Patrick Moore's 1995 list of 109 bright deep-sky objects for amateur astronomers. It spans roughly 0.9 arc-minutes on the sky. At about magnitude 9, it shows up in a small backyard telescope.

Although it appears about 0.9′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 0.9 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.

Observing Cat's Eye Nebula

Cat's Eye Nebula lies in the constellation Draco and is best placed in the evening sky around June. Its maximum altitude above the horizon depends on your latitude. It sits far enough north to be circumpolar from mid-northern latitudes, and never rises for most of the southern hemisphere. A small backyard telescope will show it; binoculars may hint at it under dark skies. Note that the listed magnitude is spread across the whole object — diffuse galaxies and nebulae are often harder to see than the number alone suggests, so dark, moonless skies help a great deal.

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Sources

Position, magnitude and angular size from the OpenNGC catalogue (Mattia Verga).
Object identity cross-referenced with SIMBAD (CDS, Strasbourg).
Image credits and the original observation source are linked with each photograph.

Related objects

Orion Nebula — nebula
Ring Nebula — nebula
Eagle Nebula — nebula
Carina Nebula — nebula
Lagoon Nebula — nebula