Emission nebula
Monkey Head Nebula (NGC2174)
In Orion (Ori) • Magnitude 99.0 • 40 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Monkey Head Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
An Ha emission nebula in Orion with a primate-like profile.
Monkey Head Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 2174 |
| Type | Emission nebula |
| Constellation | Orion (Ori) |
| Right ascension | 06h 09m 24s |
| Declination | +20° 39' 35" |
| Apparent magnitude | 99.00 |
| Angular size | 40.0 × 30.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 66° |
| Best imaging months | Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb |
How to image Monkey Head Nebula
Monkey Head Nebula sits in the constellation Orion at right ascension 06h 09m 24s and declination +20° 39' 35". 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 an emission nebula, Monkey Head Nebula responds very well to dual-narrowband filters under city skies.