The sky around NGC 3001 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 3001 is a spiral galaxy (Sbc) in Antlia, 159 million light-years away
NGC 3001 (ESO 434-038, PGC 28027) is a spiral galaxy (Sbc) in the constellation Antlia, 159 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.6 and spans 3′ × 2.3′ of sky, about 138,900 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in April.
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 3001 is AM 944-301 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 944-301 is its position: right ascension 9h 44m and declination -30.1°.
Finding NGC 3001 from ψ Vel
NGC 3001 lies 10.5° north of ψ Vel, the magnitude 3.6 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 3001 is highest in the evening in April
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 60°N, and never sets south of 60°S.
NGC 3001 is 159 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 3001 tonight left it about 159 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 280 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023), Tully-Fisher.
Objects within 6° of NGC 3001
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
