Supernova remnant
Crab Nebula (M1)
In Taurus (Tau) • Magnitude 8.4 • 7.0 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Crab Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
The scattered wreckage of a star that exploded in 1054 AD, recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers who could see it in broad daylight. At its heart spins a pulsar — a city-sized neutron star rotating 30 times per second — whose energy still lights the entire nebula from 6,500 light-years away.
Crab Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M1, N 1952 |
| Type | Supernova remnant |
| Constellation | Taurus (Tau) |
| Right ascension | 05h 34m 30s |
| Declination | +22° 00' 36" |
| Apparent magnitude | 8.40 |
| Surface brightness | 11.0 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 7.0 × 5.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 67° |
| Best imaging months | Sep, Oct, Nov |
How to image Crab Nebula
Crab Nebula sits in the constellation Taurus at right ascension 05h 34m 30s and declination +22° 00' 36". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window.