RA 23.2583° · Dec -0.6898° · openngc
1 more point to reach Rare.
IC 138 is an uncommon galaxy. It lies about 215,672,777.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cet and shines at apparent magnitude 14.72.
A barred spiral — a straight bar of stars driving right through the nucleus, feeding gas inwards. Our own Milky Way is one of these.
Look for IC 138 in the constellation Cet. At apparent magnitude 14.72, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 138 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 138 scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Barred spiral galaxy 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.