Emission nebula · Dorado

NGC 2070 Tarantula Nebula

Also known as: C103

mag 5.016′ across

About

NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula, is an emission nebula of magnitude 5.0 in Dorado, about 16′ across.

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How to find it

  • NGC 2070 is in the constellation Dorado.
  • Best evenings: around late January it is highest at about 9 pm (10 pm in summer time); a month earlier, two hours later.
  • Where on Earth: it is seen well, at least 10° up, from south of 11° N.

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When it rises and sets tonight, how high it climbs and how much the Moon gets in the way are worked out in your browser for your place.

What you will see

  • EyesNot visible to the naked eye.
  • Binoculars (10×50)A bright glow wrapped around stars.
  • Telescope (6–8 inch)Glowing clouds with dark lanes; a UHC filter shows much more.

For a dark country sky with no Moon. From a city, faint galaxies and nebulae can disappear completely.

Facts

DesignationsNGC 2070, C103
TypeEmission nebula
Magnitude5.0The smaller the number, the brighter.
Apparent size16′ × 16′the full Moon is 31′ across
ConstellationDorado
Right ascension (J2000)05h 38m 42.4s
Declination (J2000)−69° 06′ 03″

More in Dorado

LMCLarge Magellanic CloudGalaxy · mag 0.4ESO 56-115Large Magellanic CloudGalaxy · mag 0.3NGC 206030 Dor BSupernova remnant · mag 9.6NGC 1910S Dor ClusterCluster with nebula · mag 9.7NGC 2080Ghost Head NebulaEmission nebula · mag 10.4NGC 1922Starfish ClusterOpen cluster · mag 11.5
All NGC objects in Dorado →Dorado on the constellations page →

Sources and credits

Catalog data: OpenNGC by Mattia Verga, CC BY-SA 4.0, and d3-celestial by Olaf Frohn, BSD 3-Clause. All data sources →