Menu

NGC 5488 — Galaxy in Centaurus

Galaxy Fair (38/100)

Barred Spiral

Magnitude 12.5m Galaxy Centaurus (Cen) Visible
Star Map
+ List + Plan Star Hop

Observe

1Properties

Magnitude 12.46
Angular Size 2.6′ × 0.7′
Position Angle 26°
Distance 209.51 million ly
Galaxy Type Barred Spiral (SABb)
F, R, *8 s nr; = IC 4375

Position & Identifiers

RA 14h 08m 03.1s
Dec -33° 18' 53.6"
Constellation Centaurus (Cen)
Catalog NGC 5488

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. V. 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 Mar – May (peak: Apr)

4 Eyepiece View

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

NGC 5488 · 2.6′×0.7′ · 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 5419
Medium
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.0 1.1° Centaurus
NGC 5397
Hard+
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.85 1.6° Centaurus
Menkent
Theta Cen
Easy
Bright naked-eye star, mag 2.1
Star mag 2.06 3.1° Centaurus
IC 4430
Medium
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.13 4.4° Centaurus
IC 4351
Medium
Edge-on galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.0 4.5° Hydra
T Cen
Easy
Mira-type variable, range 5.5–9.0
Variable Star mag 6.05 5.5° Centaurus
C66
NGC 5694
Medium+
Compact globular cluster
Globular Cluster mag 10.2 9.6° Hydra
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
Centaurus
Mythology, bright stars, and deep-sky highlights.
Constellation
}