Emission nebula
Pacman Nebula (NGC281)
In Cassiopeia (Cas) • Magnitude 99.0 • 35 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Pacman Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
An emission nebula in Cassiopeia with a Pacman-like dark intrusion.
Pacman Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 281 |
| Type | Emission nebula |
| Constellation | Cassiopeia (Cas) |
| Right ascension | 00h 52m 60s |
| Declination | +56° 37' 19" |
| Apparent magnitude | 99.00 |
| Angular size | 35.0 × 30.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 78° |
| Best imaging months | Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec |
How to image Pacman Nebula
Pacman Nebula sits in the constellation Cassiopeia at right ascension 00h 52m 60s and declination +56° 37' 19". 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, Pacman Nebula responds very well to dual-narrowband filters under city skies.