Planetary Nebula NGC 6772

History

The planetary nebula was discovered by William Herschel on 21st July 1784 using his 18.7" reflecting telescope. He cataloged it as IV 14 (class IV = planetary nebula) and noted: «Very faint of equal light. resolvable 1' diameter in the midst of numberless stars of the milky way» [463] J. L. E. Dreyer listed it 1888 as NGC 6772 in his famous «New General Catalogue» [313]

Physical Properties

NGC 6772 is with a dynamical age of circa 11'000 years one of the older planetary nebulae. It's morphology is that of an elliptical shell with apparent distortion along the north-east to south-west axis. This structure may be a result of interactions between the expanding shell and the interstellar medium (ISM) [538]

«Strasbourg-ESO Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae» Acker et al., 1992 [141]
DesignationsPN G033.1-06.3: NGC 6772, PK 33-06.1, ARO 102, Sa 2-384, VV 224, VV' 486
Right Ascension (J2000.0)19h 14m 28s
Declination (J2000.0)-02° 42' 26"
Dimensions 64." (optical), 90." (radio)
Distance 1.3 : kpc
Radial Velocity0.0 ± 4.0 km/s
Expansion Velocity 10.2 (O-III) 25. (N-II) km/s
C-Star DesignationsAG82 355
C-Star MagnitudeB: 19.02, V: 18.68
DiscovererPICKERING 1879

Finder Chart

The planetary nebula NGC 6772 is located in the constellation Aquila. On 10 July it is in opposition to the Sun and crosses the meridian at local midnight. The best time to observe it is during the months of March to January.

Aquila: Planetary Nebula NGC 6772
Finder Chart Planetary Nebula NGC 6772
20:54
02:14 | 40.5°
07:34
Charts created using SkySafari 6 Pro and STScI Digitized Sky Survey. Limiting magnitudes: Constellation chart ~6.5 mag, DSS2 close-ups ~20 mag. Times are shown for timezone UTC, Latitude 46.7996°, Longitude 8.23225°, Horizon height 5°, Date 2025-05-30. [149, 160]

Objects Within a Radius of 10°

Abell 48
Abell 49
Abell 53
Abell 55
Abell 56
Abell 58
Abell 60
IC 1295
Wild Duck Cluster
Messier 11
Messier 26
NGC 6712
Phantom Streak Nebula
NGC 6741
NGC 6749
Glowing Eye Nebula
NGC 6751
NGC 6760
NGC 6778
NGC 6781
Sh 2-71

References

  • [141] Strasbourg-ESO Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae; A. Acker, F. Ochsenbein, B. Stenholm, R. Tylenda, J. Marcout, C. Schohn; European Southern Observatory; ISBN 3-923524-41-2 (1992); Bibcode:1992secg.book.....A; cdsarc.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/V/84
  • [149] SkySafari 6 Pro, Simulation Curriculum; skysafariastronomy.com
  • [160] The STScI Digitized Sky Survey; archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form
  • [313] A New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, being the Catalogue of the late Sir John F.W. Herschel, Bart., revised, corrected, and enlarged; Dreyer, J. L. E.; Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. 49: 1–237 (1888); Bibcode:1888MmRAS..49....1D
  • [463] Catalogue of one thousand new nebulae and clusters of stars; William Herschel; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1 January 1786; DOI:10.1098/rstl.1786.0027
  • [538] A New Radio Molecular Line Survey of Planetary Nebulae: HNC/HCN as a Diagnostic of Ultraviolet Irradiation; Jesse Bublitz, Joel H. Kastner, Miguel Santander-García, Valentin Bujarrabal, Javier Alcolea, Rodolfo Montez Jr; A&A 625, A101 (2019); arXiv:arXiv:1904.08440; DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201834408