The sky around NGC 1512 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 1512 is a ring galaxy (Sa) in Horologium, 61 million light-years away
NGC 1512 (ESO 250-004, PGC 14391) is a ring galaxy (Sa) in the constellation Horologium, 61 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 10.4 and spans 8.4′ × 4′ of sky, about 150,000 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in January.
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 1512 is AM 402-433 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 402-433 is its position: right ascension 4h 02m and declination -43.3°. It ranks 35 by brightness among the 40 brightest objects in the list on this site.
Finding NGC 1512 from υ4 Eri
NGC 1512 lies 9.9° south of υ4 Eri, the magnitude 3.5 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 1512 is highest in the evening in January
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 47°N, and never sets south of 47°S.
NGC 1512 is 61 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 1512 tonight left it about 61 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 131 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: PNLF, Anand 2021 PHANGS.
Objects within 6° of NGC 1512
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
