Observe
1Properties
Magnitude
11.8
Angular Size
2.5′ × 1.8′
Position Angle
66°
Distance
82.09 million ly
Galaxy Type
Barred Spiral (SABa)
pF, cL, R, glbM, S* p 90"
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. | Medium | Hard+ | Hard |
| Celestron C8 (203 mm SCT) C8 203mm | Medium | Medium | 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
Sep – Nov
(peak: Oct)
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.
Chi Cet
Easy double, sep 184.1″
Double Star
mag 4.67
0.3°
Cetus
NGC 731
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy
mag 13.0
2.0°
Cetus
NGC 755
Barred spiral galaxy
Galaxy
mag 12.59
2.2°
Cetus
NGC 720
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy
mag 10.2
3.4°
Cetus
NGC 636
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy
mag 11.3
3.8°
Cetus
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
Cetus
Mythology, bright stars, and deep-sky highlights.
Constellation
