Menu

NGC 4271 — Galaxy in Ursa Major

Galaxy Fair (20/100)

Elliptical

Magnitude 13.0m Galaxy Ursa Major (UMa) Visible
Star Map
+ List + Plan Star Hop

Observe

1Properties

Magnitude 13.0
Angular Size 1.8′ × 1.4′
Position Angle 59°
Distance 220.72 million ly
Galaxy Type Elliptical (E-S0)
pB, pL, iF

Position & Identifiers

RA 12h 19m 32.6s
Dec +56° 44' 11.8"
Constellation Ursa Major (UMa)
Catalog NGC 4271

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
80mm refr. Hard V. hard+ V. hard+
150mm Newt. Hard+ Hard+ Hard
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 Feb – Apr (peak: Mar)

4 Eyepiece View

Log in to set your own equipment
125x TFOV: 0.4° Lim. mag: 13.6
N E

NGC 4271 · 1.8′×1.4′ · N up, E left

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 4194
Hard+
Barred spiral galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.4 2.3° Ursa Major
NGC 3998
Easy
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy mag 10.6 3.3° Ursa Major
Z UMa
Easy
Mira-type variable, range 6.2–9.7
Variable Star mag 6.20 3.3° Ursa Major
NGC 3990
Hard+
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.6 3.3° Ursa Major
NGC 3982
Hard+
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.0 3.6° Ursa Major
M97
Owl Nebula
Hard+
Planetary nebula — try an OIII filter
Planetary Nebula mag 9.9 9.2° Ursa Major
Show on Map

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
Ursa Major
Mythology, bright stars, and deep-sky highlights.
Constellation
}