c22-1 — Hubble · Caldwell 22 · NASA, ESA, and A. Hajian (University of Waterloo)

Copeland's Blue Snowball

Nebula in Andromeda · 2,500 light-years

🔭 Explore Copeland's Blue Snowball in the 3D map →View Copeland's Blue Snowball images →

Type	Nebula
Constellation	Andromeda
Right ascension	23h 25m 54s
Declination	+42° 32′
Object distance	2,500 light-years
Apparent magnitude	8.3
Apparent size	0.3′ (arc-minutes)
Approx. true diameter	0.2 light-years across
Also known as	C22 · NGC 7662

Caldwell 22, popularly known as Copeland's Blue Snowball, is a nebula (NGC 7662) in Andromeda — a luminous cloud of interstellar gas and dust. It appears as number 22 in the Caldwell catalogue, Sir Patrick Moore's 1995 list of 109 bright deep-sky objects for amateur astronomers. It spans roughly 0.3 arc-minutes on the sky. At about magnitude 8.3, it shows up in a small backyard telescope.

Although it appears about 0.3′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 0.2 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.

Observing Copeland's Blue Snowball

Copeland's Blue Snowball lies in the constellation Andromeda and is best placed in the evening sky around September. Its maximum altitude above the horizon depends on your latitude. It is best placed for observers in the northern hemisphere, and sits low for those far south. 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.

See Copeland's Blue Snowball in Universe Finder

Open the interactive 3D map to fly to Copeland's Blue Snowball and see it in context among the real stars around it. Launch the 3D view →

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