The sky around NGC 1672 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 1672 is a spiral galaxy (Sb) in Dorado, 63 million light-years away
NGC 1672 (ESO 118-043, PGC 15941) is a spiral galaxy (Sb) in the constellation Dorado, 63 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 10.2 and spans 6.1′ × 5.5′ of sky, about 112,300 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 1672 is AM 444-592 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 444-592 is its position: right ascension 4h 44m and declination -59.2°. It ranks 13 by brightness among the 40 brightest objects in the list on this site.
Finding NGC 1672 from α Dor
NGC 1672 lies 4.5° south of α Dor, the magnitude 3.3 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 1672 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 31°N, and never sets south of 31°S.
NGC 1672 is 63 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 1672 tonight left it about 63 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 140 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Flow model (NAM), Anand 2021 PHANGS.
Objects within 6° of NGC 1672
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
