The sky around NGC 4603 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 4603 is an intermediate spiral galaxy (SABc) in Centaurus, 103 million light-years away
NGC 4603 (ESO 322-052, PGC 42510) is an intermediate spiral galaxy (SABc) in the constellation Centaurus, 103 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.7 and spans 2.6′ × 1.8′ of sky, about 77,900 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in May.
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 4603 is AM 1238-404 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 1238-404 is its position: right ascension 12h 38m and declination -40.4°.
Finding NGC 4603 from Muhlifain
NGC 4603 lies 8.0° north of Muhlifain, the magnitude 2.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 4603 is highest in the evening in May
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 49°N, and never sets south of 49°S.
NGC 4603 is 103 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 4603 tonight left it about 103 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 218 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 4603
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
