RA 50.6738° · Dec -37.2082° · openngc
11 more points to reach Epic.
Fornax A is a rare galaxy. It lies about 82,567,473.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation For and shines at apparent magnitude 8.48.
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 Fornax A in the constellation For. At apparent magnitude 8.48, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, Fornax A 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.
Fornax A scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Has a proper name, Lenticular galaxy (a disc with no arms) and Big on the sky — 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.