The sky around NGC 2090 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 2090 is a spiral galaxy (Sc) in Columba, 38 million light-years away
NGC 2090 (ESO 363-023, PGC 17819) is a spiral galaxy (Sc) in the constellation Columba, 38 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 10.9 and spans 4.5′ × 1.7′ of sky, about 50,100 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in February.
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 2090 is AM 545-341 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 545-341 is its position: right ascension 5h 45m and declination -34.1°.
Finding NGC 2090 from Phact
NGC 2090 lies 1.5° east of Phact, the magnitude 2.6 star. That is within one binocular field.
NGC 2090 is highest in the evening in February
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 56°N, and never sets south of 56°S.
NGC 2090 is 38 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 2090 tonight left it about 38 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 88 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cepheids, Anand 2021 PHANGS.
Objects within 6° of NGC 2090
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
