RCW 88 of a larger halo of fainter nebulosity extending perhaps out to 10 arcmin. The RCW catalogue states the Hα image size is 3'×2. RCW 88 is located about 3300 parsecs (10,000 light years) from us, though other estimates place this at a closer 1800±300 pc. or 1800±200 pc. Assuming the former distance and the diameter as 5'-6' across, finds by simple trigonometry the true size subtends a minimum of 5±1 parsecs (16±3 light-years.) This small emission nebula shows a mean radial velocity of −18 km.s, and is also a faint radio source that was identified by Lloyd Higgs in 1971.
Saturn Nebula ansae are most prominent in the Saturn Nebula, they are also visible in other planetary nebulae, including NGC 3242, NGC 6543 and NGC 2371-2. The distance of the Saturn Nebula is not known precisely. estimates the distance to be 5,200 light-years (1.6 kpc). In 1963 O'Dell estimated it to be 3,900 light-years (1.2 kpc), which gives an approximate diameter of 0.5 light years for the object as a whole. The central star, a very hot bluish dwarf with a temperature of 55,000 K, from which the nebula is believed to originate, has an absolute magnitude of +1.5, which equates to