The sky around NGC 2541 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 2541 is a spiral galaxy (SABc) in Lynx, 36 million light-years away
NGC 2541 (PGC 23110, UGC 4284) is a spiral galaxy (SABc) in the constellation Lynx, 36 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.7 and spans 3′ × 1.6′ of sky, about 31,600 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in March.
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 2541 from Talitha
NGC 2541 lies 7.4° west of Talitha, the magnitude 3.1 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 2541 is highest in the evening in March
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 northern hemisphere and south to about 41°S, and never sets north of 41°N.
NGC 2541 is 36 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 2541 tonight left it about 36 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 81 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023), Cepheids/Tully-Fisher.
Objects within 6° of NGC 2541
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
