The sky around NGC 6300 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 6300 is a barred spiral galaxy (SBb) in Ara, 42 million light-years away
NGC 6300 (ESO 101-025, PGC 60001) is a barred spiral galaxy (SBb) in the constellation Ara, 42 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 10.3 and spans 5.3′ × 3.4′ of sky, about 65,500 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 6300 from δ Ara
NGC 6300 lies 2.7° southwest of δ Ara, the magnitude 3.6 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 6300 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 southern hemisphere and north to about 27°N, and never sets south of 27°S.
NGC 6300 is 42 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 6300 tonight left it about 42 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 94 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 6300
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
