The sky around NGC 3054 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 3054 is a spiral galaxy (Sb) in Hydra, 127 million light-years away
NGC 3054 (ESO 499-018, PGC 28571) is a spiral galaxy (Sb) in the constellation Hydra, 127 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.5 and spans 3.6′ × 2.2′ of sky, about 133,100 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.
Finding NGC 3054 from Alphard
NGC 3054 lies 18.2° south of Alphard, the magnitude 2.0 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 3054 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 64°N, and never sets south of 64°S.
NGC 3054 is 127 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 3054 tonight left it about 127 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 252 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 3054
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
