The Headphone Nebula is a faint planetary nebula in the constellation Lynx that presents a genuine challenge for deep-sky imagers. With an apparent magnitude of 17.128 mag and an exceptionally low surface brightness of 29.7645 mag/arcsec², it demands very long integration times, dark skies, and a large-aperture instrument to reveal its structure. Its comparatively generous angular size of 6.3′ means the nebula spreads its scarce light over a wide area, so narrowband filters targeting emission lines are the preferred route to teasing out its delicate shell. Patient stacking of many sub-exposures is essential to lift this ghostly target out of the background noise.
Names and Catalog numbers
- Headphone Nebula
- PK 164+31.1
- PN G164.8+31.1
Position and the cosmic neighborhood
The Headphone Nebula lies in the northern constellation Lynx, at a right ascension of 07 57 51.62 and a declination of +53 25 17.0, placing it high in the sky for observers at mid-northern latitudes. This far-northern position keeps it well above the horizon for much of the year, an advantage for imagers chasing the long exposures this dim object requires. Lynx is a sparse, faint constellation threading between Ursa Major and Auriga, offering a relatively uncrowded stellar backdrop that helps the nebula’s extended glow stand out during processing.
Nice to Know
- Its evocative common name comes from its shape, which resembles a pair of headphones in deeper exposures.
- Despite spanning 6.3′ across the sky, it is only about 3 light-years in true physical diameter.
- At magnitude 17.128 mag it ranks among the more demanding planetary nebulae for amateur astrophotographers.
- It carries the catalog designations PK 164+31.1 and PN G164.8+31.1.
Brightness, distance and size
The object has an apparent magnitude of 17.1 mag, it lies about 1,890 light-years from Earth and spans roughly 3 light-years across. On the sky it appears about 6.3′ in size.
