Target guide · planetary nebula

NGC 6826 Blinking Planetary with a smart telescope

NGC 6826 Blinking Planetary is a planetary nebula about 0 arcminutes (0.01°) across, magnitude 9.44. It is highest around midnight in July, best placed for the northern hemisphere, and bright enough to image from a suburb or even a city. It is larger than every native frame we track, or too small to fill one, so plan a mosaic or a crop.

Key facts

CatalogueNGC 6826
Typeplanetary nebula
Apparent size0′ × 0′
Magnitude9.44
Position (J2000)RA 19.75 h, Dec 50.5°
Highest at midnightJuly (±2 weeks)
Sky neededCity-friendly surface brightness 16.1 mag/arcsec²

In the best-matching frame

NGC 6826 · 0′ × 0′
NGC 6826 Blinking Planetary (blue) inside the native frame of Seestar S30 (2.14° × 1.21°).

Simulate your photo of Blinking Planetary →

Imaging tips

This type glows in the specific colours of hydrogen and oxygen. If your smart telescope has a dual-band or light-pollution filter, use it: it blocks much of the city glow while letting the nebula through. Blinking Planetary is one of the easier targets from light-polluted skies.

Which smart telescope frames it best

TelescopeField of viewFitMosaic
Unistellar Odyssey0.75° × 0.56°small in the frameone frame
Unistellar Odyssey Pro0.75° × 0.56°small in the frameone frame
Unistellar eQuinox 20.76° × 0.57°small in the frameone frame
Unistellar eVscope 20.76° × 0.57°small in the frameone frame
ZWO Seestar S501.29° × 0.73°small in the frameone frame
Celestron Origin Mark II1.32° × 0.75°small in the frameone frame
DWARFLAB DWARF mini2.13° × 1.2°small in the frameone frame
ZWO Seestar S302.14° × 1.21°small in the frameone frame
ZWO Seestar S50 Pro2.45° × 1.38°small in the frameone frame
Vaonis Vespera II2.5° × 1.4°small in the frameone frame
Vaonis Vespera 32.5° × 1.4°small in the frameone frame
Vaonis Vespera Pro 21.6° × 1.6°small in the frameone frame
DWARFLAB DWARF 32.93° × 1.65°small in the frameone frame
ZWO Seestar S30 Pro3.99° × 2.24°small in the frameone frame

How high it gets from where you live

Highest altitude above a flat horizon. Below about 20° the image suffers from haze and light pollution; trees and roofs often block it completely.

LatitudeHighest altitude
Oslo, 60° N81°
Amsterdam, 52° N89°
Madrid, 40° N79°
Miami, 26° N65°
Equator39°
Sydney, 34° S5°
See if it clears your own horizon tonight

Nearby in the sky

Objects close to NGC 6826 in the sky, so you can image them in the same session.

Questions and answers

Can I photograph NGC 6826 Blinking Planetary from a city?
Yes. It is bright enough to image from a suburb or even a city.
Which smart telescope is best for NGC 6826 Blinking Planetary?
None of the smart telescopes we track frames it well in one frame; plan a mosaic or a crop.
When is the best time to photograph NGC 6826 Blinking Planetary?
It is highest around midnight in July and best placed for the northern hemisphere. From 52° north it climbs to about 89° at most.

Object data: Messier catalogue via d3-celestial (BSD-3); NGC and IC objects from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA 4.0). Altitudes and dates are calculated, not observed.