{"id":557226,"date":"2026-07-19T09:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T09:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557226\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T09:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T09:17:08","slug":"the-sky-today-on-sunday-july-19-an-oval-shaped-nebula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557226\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Sunday, July 19: An oval-shaped nebula"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tPlanetary nebula 6563 is a worthy challenge for larger scopes, floating near the base of the Teapot asterism in Sagittarius late tonight.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"608\" height=\"612\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/eso1724cb.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"A telescope image of a planetary nebula, showing a nearly circular shell of glowing gas surrounding a blue interior filled with scattered stars. The outer ring is rendered in vivid shades of red, orange, and yellow, while the inner region glows in soft blue and teal. Background stars of various colors are visible around the nebula against a dark sky.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPlanetary nebula NGC 6563 is faint but attainable in larger amateur scopes, located in the southern sky late tonight. Credit: ESO\/P. Weilbacher\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-this-week-from-july-17-to-24-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">July 18: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-saturday-july-18-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Comet Tempel\u2019s knife-edge tail<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Right as the Moon is setting this evening, the planetary nebula NGC 6563 in Sagittarius is reaching the highest point in its path across the sky. This oval-shaped bubble of gas, generated as well as lit up by a dying Sun-like star in its center, is best viewed through larger scopes, so this is a great target if you\u2019ve got access to an aperture of 8 inches or more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Glowing around 11th magnitude, NGC 6563 is located in the south around 11 P.M. local daylight time. To find it, first identify the Teapot asterism in Sagittarius. The nebula sits just 2.5\u00b0 west of magnitude 1.8 Kaus Australis (Epsilon Sagittarii), which marks the righthand corner of the Teapot\u2019s base, where the bottom of its spout meets the body. This region is just to the upper left of the curving base of Scorpius\u2019 tail, which lies closer to the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have one, use an Oxygen-III filter to help enhance the nebula\u2019s visibility. NGC 6563 is pretty compact, just 48\u201d across. Through most modestly large scopes, it will look like a featureless disk; if you\u2019ve got a bigger scope of 14 inches or more, you will start to notice the outer edge is a bit brighter than the inner regions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunrise: 5:47 A.M.<br \/>Sunset: 8:25 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise: 11:48 A.M.<br \/>Moonset: 11:21 P.M.<br \/>Moon Phase:\u00a0Waxing crescent (37%)<br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Planetary nebula 6563 is a worthy challenge for larger scopes, floating near the base&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-557226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}