Observe
1Properties
Magnitude
12.0
Angular Size
3.6′ × 3.1′
Position Angle
81°
Distance
131.68 million ly
Galaxy Type
Elliptical (E3)
vB, S, R, pgvmbM
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+ | Hard | V. hard+ |
| 150 mm Newton 150mm Newt. | Medium+ | Medium | Hard+ |
| Celestron C8 (203 mm SCT) C8 203mm | Medium+ | Medium+ | Medium |
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
Jun – Aug
(peak: Jul)
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 6870
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy
mag 12.2
0.1°
Telescopium
NGC 6861
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy
mag 11.1
0.4°
Telescopium
IC 4943
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy
mag 12.67
0.6°
Telescopium
NGC 6875
Elliptical galaxy
Galaxy
mag 13.0
2.3°
Telescopium
Xi Tel
Cool red giant
Star
mag 4.94
4.5°
Telescopium
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
Telescopium
Mythology, bright stars, and deep-sky highlights.
Constellation
