Planetary nebula
Spiral Planetary Nebula (NGC5189)
In Musca (Mus) • Magnitude 10.0 • 2.3 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Spiral Planetary Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A complex bipolar planetary nebula in Musca.
Spiral Planetary Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 5189 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Musca (Mus) |
| Right ascension | 13h 33m 33s |
| Declination | -65° 58' 27" |
| Apparent magnitude | 10.00 |
| Surface brightness | 20.5 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 2.3 × 2.3 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | Below horizon |
| Best imaging months | Mar, Apr, May |
How to image Spiral Planetary Nebula
Spiral Planetary Nebula sits in the constellation Musca at right ascension 13h 33m 33s and declination -65° 58' 27". 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, Spiral Planetary Nebula typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.