The sky around IC 5152 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 5152 is an irregular galaxy (IAB) in Indus, 6.4 million light-years away
IC 5152 (ESO 237-027, PGC 67908) is an irregular galaxy (IAB) in the constellation Indus, 6.4 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 10.4 and spans 5.1′ × 3.6′ of sky, about 9,490 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in October.
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 5152 is AM 2159-513 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 2159-513 is its position: right ascension 21h 59m and declination -51.3°. It ranks 34 by brightness among the 40 brightest objects in the list on this site.
Finding IC 5152 from Alnair
IC 5152 lies 4.4° south of Alnair, the magnitude 1.7 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
IC 5152 is highest in the evening in October
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 39°N, and never sets south of 39°S.
IC 5152 is 6.4 million light-years away
The light seen from IC 5152 tonight left it about 6.4 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 29 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: TRGB, McConnachie 2012 compilation (via LVDB).
Objects within 6° of IC 5152
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
