The sky around NGC 300 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
NGC 300 is a spiral galaxy in Sculptor, 6.8 million light-years away
NGC 300 (Caldwell 70, PGC 3238, AM 052-375) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor, 6.8 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 8.7 and spans 19′ × 13′ of sky, about 37,600 light-years across. It is an easy target in binoculars, and it is highest in the evening sky in November.
Galaxy: a system of billions of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity, far outside the Milky Way. Spiral galaxies have a disk with arms; elliptical galaxies are smooth, round or oval swarms of older stars.
NGC 300 is AM 052-375 in the Arp-Madore catalog
Halton Arp and Barry Madore listed it in A Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies and Associations (1987), from their search of the UK Schmidt southern sky survey plates. The number 052-375 is its position: right ascension 0h 52m and declination -37.5°. It ranks 2 by brightness among the 40 brightest objects in the list on this site.
Finding NGC 300 from Ankaa
NGC 300 lies 7.2° northeast of Ankaa, the magnitude 2.4 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 300 is highest in the evening in November
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole southern hemisphere and north to about 52°N, and never sets south of 52°S.
NGC 300 is 6.8 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 300 tonight left it about 6.8 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 79 of 109 by distance among the 109 Caldwell objects. Distance source: TRGB, Tully et al. 2009.
Objects within 6° of NGC 300
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
