RA 255.4895° · Dec 6.6658° · openngc
15 more points to reach Epic.
NGC 6280 is a rare galaxy. It sits in the constellation Oph and shines at apparent magnitude 15.5.
Not one galaxy but two, locked in a gravitational embrace. Encounters like this shred spiral arms and trigger furious bursts of star formation.
Look for NGC 6280 in the constellation Oph. At apparent magnitude 15.5, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 6280 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 6280 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 4 science badges — Galaxy, Interacting galaxy pair, Elliptical galaxy 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.