The sky around NGC 6958 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 6958 is an elliptical galaxy (E) in Microscopium, 125 million light-years away
NGC 6958 (ESO 341-015, PGC 65436) is an elliptical galaxy (E) in the constellation Microscopium, 125 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.4 and spans 2.4′ × 1.9′ of sky, about 87,300 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in September.
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 6958 is AM 2041-381 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 2041-381 is its position: right ascension 20h 41m and declination -38.1°.
Finding NGC 6958 from α Ind
NGC 6958 lies 9.5° north of α Ind, the magnitude 3.1 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 6958 is highest in the evening in September
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 52°N, and never sets south of 52°S.
NGC 6958 is 125 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 6958 tonight left it about 125 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 248 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Hubble flow, v=2685 km/s, H0=70.
Objects within 6° of NGC 6958
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
