Planetary nebula
Ghost of Jupiter (NGC3242)
In Hydra (Hya) • Magnitude 7.7 • 0.4 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Ghost of Jupiter pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A planetary nebula in Hydra similar in apparent size to the planet Jupiter.
Ghost of Jupiter at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 3242 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Hydra (Hya) |
| Right ascension | 10h 24m 46s |
| Declination | -18° 38' 32" |
| Apparent magnitude | 7.70 |
| Surface brightness | 14.4 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 0.4 × 0.4 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 26° |
| Best imaging months | Feb, Mar, Apr |
How to image Ghost of Jupiter
Ghost of Jupiter sits in the constellation Hydra at right ascension 10h 24m 46s and declination -18° 38' 32". 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, Ghost of Jupiter typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.