Planetary nebula
Crystal Ball Nebula (NGC1514)
In Taurus (Tau) • Magnitude 10.2 • 2.2 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Crystal Ball Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Planetary nebula in Taurus with a hazy halo.
Crystal Ball Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 1514 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Taurus (Tau) |
| Right ascension | 04h 09m 17s |
| Declination | +30° 46' 33" |
| Apparent magnitude | 10.20 |
| Surface brightness | 20.5 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 2.2 × 2.2 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 76° |
| Best imaging months | Nov, Dec, Jan |
How to image Crystal Ball Nebula
Crystal Ball Nebula sits in the constellation Taurus at right ascension 04h 09m 17s and declination +30° 46' 33". 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. As a planetary nebula, Crystal Ball Nebula typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.