The sky around NGC 5970 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 5970 is a barred spiral galaxy (SBc) in Serpens, 91 million light-years away
NGC 5970 (PGC 55665, UGC 9943) is a barred spiral galaxy (SBc) in the constellation Serpens, 91 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.6 and spans 2.8′ × 1.9′ of sky, about 74,000 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in July.
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 5970 from Unukalhai
NGC 5970 lies 5.9° north of Unukalhai, the magnitude 2.6 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 5970 is highest in the evening in July
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 northern hemisphere and south to about 78°S, and never sets north of 78°N.
NGC 5970 is 91 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 5970 tonight left it about 91 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 193 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 5970
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
