RA 80.4862° · Dec 3.4864° · openngc
16 more points to reach Epic.
IC 412 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 200,866,226.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori and shines at apparent magnitude 14.62.
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 412 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 14.62, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 412 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 412 scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Spiral galaxy, In Orion's hunting ground 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.