diff --git a/glue_wwt/viewer/table_layer.py b/glue_wwt/viewer/table_layer.py
index faea5783..a8593ee4 100644
--- a/glue_wwt/viewer/table_layer.py
+++ b/glue_wwt/viewer/table_layer.py
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
 from astropy.table import Table
 
+from numpy import size
+
 import pywwt
 from pywwt.layers import TableLayer
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
@@ -267,8 +269,13 @@ def _update_presentation(self, force=False, **kwargs):
                 try:
                     coord = SkyCoord(lon, lat, unit=u.deg,
                                      frame=self._viewer_state.frame.lower()).icrs
-                except Exception as exc:
-                    self.disable(str(exc))
+                except Exception:
+                    if size(lat) < 5:
+                        angle_info = f"{lat}"
+                    else:
+                        angle_info = f"{lat.min()} deg <= angle <= {lat.max()} deg"
+                    disable_msg = f"Latitude angle(s) must be within -90 deg <= angle <= 90 deg, got {angle_info}"
+                    self.disable(disable_msg)
                     return
 
                 lon = coord.spherical.lon.degree
diff --git a/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_utils.py b/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_utils.py
index 92301dc6..2cdd67cb 100644
--- a/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -30,3 +30,7 @@ def test_center_fov_non_finite():
     assert_allclose(lon_c, 3)
     assert_allclose(lat_c, 2)
     assert_allclose(fov, 1)
+
+
+def create_disabled_message(reason):
+    return "Cannot visualize this layer: %s" % reason
diff --git a/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_wwt_widget.py b/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_wwt_widget.py
index 3464b9cc..14c36caf 100644
--- a/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_wwt_widget.py
+++ b/glue_wwt/viewer/tests/test_wwt_widget.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 from glue_qt.app import GlueApplication
 
 from ..qt_data_viewer import WWTQtViewer
+from .test_utils import create_disabled_message
 
 DATA = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'data')
 
@@ -29,9 +30,13 @@ class TestWWTDataViewer(object):
 
     def setup_method(self, method):
         self.d = Data(x=[1, 2, 3], y=[2, 3, 4], z=[4, 5, 6])
+        self.bad_data_short = Data(x=[-100, 100], y=[-10, 10])
+        self.bad_data_long = Data(x=[-100, -90, -80, 80, 90, 100], y=[-10, -7, -3, 3, 7, 10])
         self.application = GlueApplication()
         self.dc = self.application.data_collection
         self.dc.append(self.d)
+        self.dc.append(self.bad_data_short)
+        self.dc.append(self.bad_data_long)
         self.hub = self.dc.hub
         self.session = self.application.session
         self.viewer = self.application.new_data_viewer(WWTQtViewerBlocking)
@@ -176,6 +181,26 @@ def test_load_session_back_compat(self):
         assert viewer_state.lat_att.label == 'b'
         assert viewer_state.frame == 'Galactic'
 
+    def test_skycoord_exception_message_short(self):
+        self.viewer.add_data(self.bad_data_short)
+        self.viewer.state.lat_att = self.bad_data_short.id['x']
+        layer = self.viewer.layers[-1]
+        assert not layer.enabled
+        disabled_reason = "Latitude angle(s) must be within -90 deg <= angle <= 90 deg, " \
+                          f"got {self.bad_data_short['x']}"
+        disabled_message = create_disabled_message(disabled_reason)
+        assert layer.disabled_message == disabled_message
+
+    def test_skycoord_exception_message_long(self):
+        self.viewer.add_data(self.bad_data_long)
+        self.viewer.state.lat_att = self.bad_data_long.id['x']
+        layer = self.viewer.layers[-1]
+        assert not layer.enabled
+        disabled_reason = "Latitude angle(s) must be within -90 deg <= angle <= 90 deg, " \
+                          "got -100 deg <= angle <= 100 deg"
+        disabled_message = create_disabled_message(disabled_reason)
+        assert layer.disabled_message == disabled_message
+
     # TODO: determine if the following test is the desired behavior
     # def test_subsets_not_live_added_if_data_not_present(self):
     #     self.register()