RA 172.3017° · Dec 11.8655° · openngc
2 more points to reach Epic.
IC 2870 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 150,496,017.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Leo and shines at apparent magnitude 18.
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 2870 in the constellation Leo. At apparent magnitude 18, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 2870 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 2870 scores 48 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Irregular galaxy (no shape at all), On the zodiac, 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.