Planetary nebula
Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC6543)
In Draco (Dra) • Magnitude 8.1 • 5.8 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Cat’s Eye Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A small but intensely detailed planetary nebula in Draco.
Cat’s Eye Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 6543, C 6 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Draco (Dra) |
| Right ascension | 17h 58m 37s |
| Declination | +66° 37' 48" |
| Apparent magnitude | 8.10 |
| Surface brightness | 11.0 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 5.8 × 5.8 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 68° |
| Best imaging months | Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug |
How to image Cat’s Eye Nebula
Cat’s Eye Nebula sits in the constellation Draco at right ascension 17h 58m 37s and declination +66° 37' 48". 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, Cat’s Eye Nebula typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.