Planetary nebula
Helix Nebula (NGC7293)
In Aquarius (Aqr) • Magnitude 7.6 • 25 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Helix Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
The closest bright planetary nebula to Earth, in Aquarius.
Helix Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 7293, C 63 |
| Type | Planetary nebula |
| Constellation | Aquarius (Aqr) |
| Right ascension | 22h 29m 35s |
| Declination | -20° 50' 24" |
| Apparent magnitude | 7.60 |
| Surface brightness | 14.0 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 25.0 × 21.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 24° |
| Best imaging months | Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov |
How to image Helix Nebula
Helix Nebula sits in the constellation Aquarius at right ascension 22h 29m 35s and declination -20° 50' 24". 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, Helix Nebula typically appears small and intense, so a long focal length and OIII or Ha narrowband filters bring out structure.