The sky around NGC 3402 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 3402 is an elliptical galaxy (E) in Hydra, 213 million light-years away
NGC 3402 (NGC 3411, PGC 32479) is an elliptical galaxy (E) in the constellation Hydra, 213 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.9 and spans 1.9′ of sky, about 114,600 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 3402 from ν Hya
NGC 3402 lies 3.3° north of ν Hya, the magnitude 3.1 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 3402 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 77°N, and never sets south of 77°S.
NGC 3402 is 213 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 3402 tonight left it about 213 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 309 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 3402
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
