Planetary nebula
Box Nebula (NGC6445)
In Sagittarius (Sgr) • Magnitude 11.2 • 0.6 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Box Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Compact planetary nebula in Sagittarius.
Box Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 6445 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Sagittarius (Sgr) |
| Right ascension | 17h 49m 15s |
| Declination | -20° 00' 34" |
| Apparent magnitude | 11.20 |
| Surface brightness | 18.5 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 0.6 × 0.6 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 25° |
| Best imaging months | Jun, Jul, Aug |
How to image Box Nebula
Box Nebula sits in the constellation Sagittarius at right ascension 17h 49m 15s and declination -20° 00' 34". 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, Box Nebula typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.