Planetary nebula
NGC 6781 (NGC6781)
In Aquila (Aql) • Magnitude 11.4 • 1.8 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with NGC 6781 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A bubble-shaped planetary nebula in Aquila.
NGC 6781 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 6781 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Aquila (Aql) |
| Right ascension | 19h 18m 28s |
| Declination | +06° 32' 23" |
| Apparent magnitude | 11.40 |
| Surface brightness | 21.3 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 1.8 × 1.8 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 52° |
| Best imaging months | Jul, Aug, Sep |
How to image NGC 6781
NGC 6781 sits in the constellation Aquila at right ascension 19h 18m 28s and declination +06° 32' 23". 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, NGC 6781 typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.