RA 17.1988° · Dec -15.8451° · openngc
12 more points to reach Epic.
IC 78 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 559,408,250.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cet and shines at apparent magnitude 15.24.
A galaxy: a gravitationally bound city of stars, gas and dark matter, turning so slowly that a single rotation takes hundreds of millions of years.
Look for IC 78 in the constellation Cet. At apparent magnitude 15.24, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 78 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
IC 78 scores 38 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Spiral galaxy, Ghostly low surface brightness and Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.