The sky around NGC 3358 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 3358 is a lenticular galaxy (S0-a) in Antlia, 157 million light-years away
NGC 3358 (ESO 376-017, PGC 31974) is a lenticular galaxy (S0-a) in the constellation Antlia, 157 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.6 and spans 3.6′ × 1.8′ of sky, about 165,300 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 3358 is AM 1040-360 NED03 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 1040-360 is its position: right ascension 10h 40m and declination -36.0°.
Finding NGC 3358 from Peregrini
NGC 3358 lies 13.0° north of Peregrini, the magnitude 2.7 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 3358 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 54°N, and never sets south of 54°S.
NGC 3358 is 157 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 3358 tonight left it about 157 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 277 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 3358
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
NGC 3358 catalog data
Field
Value
Designations
ESO 376-017, PGC 31974, NGC 3358, AM 1040-360 NED03