The sky around NGC 1316 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 1316 is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in Fornax, 64 million light-years away
NGC 1316 (ESO 357-022, PGC 12651, Arp 154) is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in the constellation Fornax, 64 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 8.5 and spans 14′ × 7.7′ of sky, about 250,500 light-years across. It is best in a small telescope, 4 to 6 inches, and it is highest in the evening sky in December.
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.
Finding NGC 1316 from Acamar
NGC 1316 lies 5.7° northeast of Acamar, the magnitude 2.9 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 1316 is highest in the evening in December
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 53°N, and never sets south of 53°S.
NGC 1316 is 64 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 1316 tonight left it about 64 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 143 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023), TRGB/SBF/SN Ia/Fundamental Plane.
Objects within 6° of NGC 1316
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
