Eagle Nebula
A star cluster wrapped in glowing gas, home of the Pillars of Creation that the Hubble Space Telescope photographed.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Kind of object
- Cloud of glowing gas (nebula)
- Distance
- 7,000 light years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.4, a sight for binoculars
- Size in the sky
- About 4 times the width of the full Moon
- Constellation
- Serpens
- Catalogue
- M 16, NGC 6611
Figures from OpenNGC, CC BY-SA 4.0; the SEDS Messier catalogue, via Wikipedia’s table of Messier objects, CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- Omega NebulaA nebula in Sagittarius, about three fingers away.
- Small Sagittarius Star CloudA star cloud in Sagittarius, about three fingers away.
- Trifid NebulaA nebula in Sagittarius, about a fist away.
- Sagittarius ClusterA globular cluster in Sagittarius, about a fist away.
- Wild Duck ClusterAn open cluster in Scutum, about a fist away.