Deep-Sky Dreams: PuWe 1   

Purgathofer-Weinberger 1 lies about 1,300 light-years away and is the second-largest planetary nebula in our sky.
By | Published: July 18, 2025 | Last updated on July 21, 2025

A spherical, faintly glowing pink nebula known as Purgathofer-Weinberger 1 floats against a dark star-filled background. The nebula’s diffuse, circular shape appears semi-transparent, with a mottled texture of filamentary gas and scattered stars shining through and around it. The outer edges glow slightly brighter, forming a faint shell-like structure. Countless distant stars twinkle across the image.
The large, faint planetary nebula Purgathofer-Weinberger 1 appears as an unevenly-lit shell in this long exposure image taken by a backyard skyshooter. Credit: Don Goldman
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • PuWe 1 is a very large planetary nebula.
  • It's one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth.
  • Its faintness makes it hard to see with small telescopes.
  • Astrophotographers with good equipment can image it.
Key takeaways sponsored by The Space Store

Many faint planetary nebulae went undiscovered for surprisingly long times after Charles Messier and the Herschels stopped cataloguing nebulous objects lying around parts of the sky. It wasn’t until 1980 that two Austrian astronomers, Alois Purgathofer and Ronald Weinberger, found a large, faint planetary nebulae as they searched plates of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. 

What was designated Purgathofer-Weinberger 1, often abbreviated PuWe 1, lies in western Lynx, near the border with Camelopardalis, and glows faintly at magnitude 11.2. The object’s large size of 20’ means it has a very low surface brightness — in other words, small parts of it appear to be very dim. 

PuWe 1 is so large that it is the second largest planetary nebula in our sky. Its low surface brightness makes it virtually impossible to spot visually through backyard telescopes, but of course astroimagers who have substantial equipment can record it. 

Purgathofer-Weinberger 1 lies about 1,300 light-years away, making it one of the closest planetary nebulae to us, thus explaining its large apparent size. Check out this object when you have a chance, particularly if you’re an ambitious astrophotographer.

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