RA 49.9756° · Dec 41.5634° · openngc
10 more points to reach Rare.
NGC 1278 is an uncommon galaxy. It lies about 281,324,464.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Per and shines at apparent magnitude 12.45.
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 NGC 1278 in the constellation Per. At apparent magnitude 12.45, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 1278 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.
NGC 1278 scores 24 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely and Elliptical galaxy — 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.