The sky around IC 5011 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.
IC 5011 is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in Microscopium, 106 million light-years away
IC 5011 (ESO 400-029, PGC 64772, IC 5013) is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in the constellation Microscopium, 106 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.8 and spans 3′ × 1.3′ of sky, about 92,100 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in September.
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.
IC 5011 is AM 2025-361 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 2025-361 is its position: right ascension 20h 25m and declination -36.1°.
Finding IC 5011 from α Ind
IC 5011 lies 11.4° north of α Ind, the magnitude 3.1 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
IC 5011 is highest in the evening in September
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 54°N, and never sets south of 54°S.
IC 5011 is 106 million light-years away
The light seen from IC 5011 tonight left it about 106 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 223 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Hubble flow, cz=2265 km/s, H0=70.
Objects within 6° of IC 5011
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
