RA 234.4727° · Dec 59.3918° · openngc
6 more points to reach Rare.
NGC 5981 is an uncommon galaxy. It sits in the constellation Dra and shines at apparent magnitude 12.93.
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 NGC 5981 in the constellation Dra. At apparent magnitude 12.93, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 5981 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 5981 scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Galaxy, Barred spiral galaxy and Never sets (northern circumpolar) — 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.