Observe
1Properties
Magnitude
13.0
Angular Size
2.6′ × 0.8′
Position Angle
117°
Distance
76.13 million ly
Galaxy Type
Elliptical (E-S0)
F, S, E, psbM, bet 2 st
Querying SIMBAD database...
Position & Identifiers
2How easy to spot?
Sign in
and configure your equipment and default location to see a personalized row.
| Telescope | Bortle 3 | Bortle 4 | Bortle 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 mm refractor 80mm refr. | Hard | V. hard+ | V. hard+ |
| 150 mm Newton 150mm Newt. | Hard+ | Hard+ | Hard |
| Celestron C8 (203 mm SCT) C8 203mm | Medium | Hard+ | Hard+ |
Easy
Medium
Hard
Very hard
Impossible
Bortle 3 = rural · 4 = outer suburbs · 5 = suburbs
Medium
on Seestar S50
3Visibility
Set a location in User Settings to see visibility data.
Best season
Dec – Feb
(peak: Jan)
4
Eyepiece View
5
Best Magnification
Explore
6
Surface Brightness
7
Morphology Decoder
8
Inclination & True Shape
9
Redshift
10
Size Comparator
Discover
11
Light Travel Time Machine
12
Relativistic Travel
Nearby in the Sky
Other targets within a few degrees — pan your scope a little and keep exploring.
Visibility scores assume a 150 mm Newton at Bortle 4.
NGC 2578
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy
mag 12.4
3.0°
Puppis
NGC 2539
Rich open cluster
Open Cluster
mag 6.5
5.7°
Puppis
NGC 2525
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy
mag 11.6
7.1°
Puppis
NGC 2517
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy
mag 12.3
7.6°
Puppis
NGC 2781
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy
mag 11.5
9.3°
Hydra
Explore Nightbase
Related knowledge, tools, and stories — no observation planning required.
William Parsons
Built the Leviathan of Parsonstown; first to resolve spiral structure of nebulae
Biography
Galaxies and the Interstellar Medium
The Hubble tuning fork, Tully-Fisher distances, metallicity, Wolf-Rayet stars, HII regions, interstellar dust, the 21-cm hydrogen line, and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect — the working toolkit astronomers use to read galaxies and the stuff between their stars.
Article
Hydra
Mythology, bright stars, and deep-sky highlights.
Constellation
