RA 108.2931° · Dec 18.9958° · openngc
3 more points to reach Rare.
IC 2181 is an uncommon galaxy. It lies about 232,267,289 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Gem and shines at apparent magnitude 14.78.
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 2181 in the constellation Gem. At apparent magnitude 14.78, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 2181 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 2181 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Spiral 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.