Emission nebula
Lobster Nebula (NGC6357)
In Scorpius (Sco) • Magnitude 9.7 • 50 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Lobster Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Bright Ha and dust complex in Scorpius near the Cat’s Paw.
Lobster Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 6357 |
| Type | Emission nebula |
| Constellation | Scorpius (Sco) |
| Right ascension | 17h 25m 55s |
| Declination | -34° 12' 00" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.70 |
| Surface brightness | 14.5 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 50.0 × 40.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 11° |
| Best imaging months | May, Jun, Jul, Aug |
How to image Lobster Nebula
Lobster Nebula sits in the constellation Scorpius at right ascension 17h 25m 55s and declination -34° 12' 00". 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, Lobster Nebula responds very well to dual-narrowband filters under city skies.