RA 184.5723° · Dec 13.2583° · openngc
15 more points to reach Epic.
IC 3121 NED02 is a rare galaxy. It sits in the constellation Vir and shines at apparent magnitude 17.5.
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 3121 NED02 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 17.5, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 3121 NED02 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 3121 NED02 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Spiral galaxy, 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.