colorful streams of yellow, blue, and green gas and dust extend from the lower left to the center right. — Hubble · Caldwell 27 · NASA, ESA, Brian D. Moore and J. Jeff Hester (Arizona State University)

Crescent Nebula

Nebula in Cygnus · 5,000 light-years

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Type	Nebula
Constellation	Cygnus
Right ascension	20h 12m 07s
Declination	+38° 21′
Object distance	5,000 light-years
Apparent size	20′ (arc-minutes)
Approx. true diameter	29.1 light-years across
Also known as	C27 · NGC 6888

Caldwell 27, popularly known as the Crescent Nebula, is a nebula (NGC 6888) in Cygnus — a luminous cloud of interstellar gas and dust. It appears as number 27 in the Caldwell catalogue, Sir Patrick Moore's 1995 list of 109 bright deep-sky objects for amateur astronomers. It spans roughly 20 arc-minutes on the sky. It is one of the showpiece objects Sir Patrick Moore chose for his Caldwell list of bright targets the Messier catalogue left out.

Although it appears about 20′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 29.1 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.

Observing Crescent Nebula

Crescent Nebula lies in the constellation Cygnus and is best placed in the evening sky around July. 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. 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 Crescent Nebula in Universe Finder

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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