Emission nebula
Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC6334)
In Scorpius (Sco) • Magnitude 8.5 • 40 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Cat’s Paw Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Southern Ha emission nebula in Scorpius.
Cat’s Paw Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 6334 |
| Type | Emission nebula |
| Constellation | Scorpius (Sco) |
| Right ascension | 17h 11m 49s |
| Declination | -36° 04' 12" |
| Apparent magnitude | 8.50 |
| Surface brightness | 14.0 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 40.0 × 23.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 9° |
| Best imaging months | May, Jun, Jul, Aug |
How to image Cat’s Paw Nebula
Cat’s Paw Nebula sits in the constellation Scorpius at right ascension 17h 11m 49s and declination -36° 04' 12". 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, Cat’s Paw Nebula responds very well to dual-narrowband filters under city skies.