Planetary nebula
Bug Nebula (NGC6302)
In Scorpius (Sco) • Magnitude 9.6 • 0.7 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Bug Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A bipolar planetary nebula in Scorpius, also called the Butterfly Nebula.
Bug Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 6302 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Scorpius (Sco) |
| Right ascension | 17h 13m 45s |
| Declination | -37° 06' 11" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.60 |
| Surface brightness | 17.6 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 0.7 × 0.7 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 8° |
| Best imaging months | May, Jun, Jul |
How to image Bug Nebula
Bug Nebula sits in the constellation Scorpius at right ascension 17h 13m 45s and declination -37° 06' 11". 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, Bug Nebula typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.