Epic galaxy 60 EP

Barnard's Galaxy

RA 296.2406° · Dec -14.8034° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges

60 pts · Epic

Epic 78 pts → Anomaly

Galaxy +14
Irregular galaxy (no shape at all) +12
Coming towards us +10
Has a proper name +8
Toward the galactic centre +8
Big on the sky +5
On the zodiac +3

Total score 60

18 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

Galaxy · +14
Has a proper name · +8
Irregular galaxy (no shape at all) · +12
Toward the galactic centre · +8
On the zodiac · +3
Big on the sky · +5
Coming towards us · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

What it actually is. 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.
Irregular. An irregular galaxy — no disc, no bulge, no symmetry. Most have been pulled out of shape by a larger neighbour's gravity.

Sense of scale

Scale. Home to hundreds of billions of stars — a universe unto itself, and every one of those points of light could have planets.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 10.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Sagittarius.
Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around July — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Its colour is a census: blue where gas is still collapsing into hot young stars, yellow-red in the old, settled core.

What's in a name

Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.

Properties

constellation: Sgr
dso type: G
hubble: IB
mag: 10.05
name: Barnard's Galaxy
named: yes
radial velocity kms: -57
size arcmin: 17.38
surface brightness: 24.25

Nearby objects

About Barnard's Galaxy

Barnard's Galaxy is an epic galaxy. It sits in the constellation Sgr and shines at apparent magnitude 10.05.

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.

How to see it

Look for Barnard's Galaxy in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 10.05, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, Barnard's Galaxy 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.

Why Barnard's Galaxy is an epic galaxy

Barnard's Galaxy scores 60 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 18 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Galaxy, Has a proper name, Irregular galaxy (no shape at all), Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Big on the sky and Coming towards us — 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.