The sky around NGC 1543 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 1543 is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in Reticulum, 65 million light-years away
NGC 1543 (ESO 118-010, PGC 14659) is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in the constellation Reticulum, 65 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 10.2 and spans 3.7′ × 54″ of sky, about 70,400 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 1543 is AM 411-575 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 411-575 is its position: right ascension 4h 11m and declination -57.5°.
Finding NGC 1543 from α Dor
NGC 1543 lies 4.0° southwest of α Dor, the magnitude 3.3 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 1543 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 32°N, and never sets south of 32°S.
NGC 1543 is 65 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 1543 tonight left it about 65 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 151 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: SBF, Tonry 2001.
Objects within 6° of NGC 1543
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
