RA 188.4264° · Dec 26.6174° · openngc
7 more points to reach Epic.
IC 3502 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 333,007,708.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Com and shines at apparent magnitude 17.44.
A barred spiral — a straight bar of stars driving right through the nucleus, feeding gas inwards. Our own Milky Way is one of these.
Look for IC 3502 in the constellation Com. At apparent magnitude 17.44, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 3502 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 3502 scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Barred spiral galaxy, 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.