RA 30.0097° · Dec 23.6586° · openngc
2 more points to reach Uncommon.
IC 181 is a common galaxy. It sits in the constellation Ari and shines at apparent magnitude 15.85.
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 181 in the constellation Ari. At apparent magnitude 15.85, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 181 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 181 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Galaxy, On the zodiac 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.