The sky around NGC 7038 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 7038 is a spiral galaxy (SABc) in Indus, 230 million light-years away
NGC 7038 (ESO 286-079, PGC 66414) is a spiral galaxy (SABc) in the constellation Indus, 230 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 12.1 and spans 3.2′ × 1.7′ of sky, about 213,800 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 7038 is AM 2111-472 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 2111-472 is its position: right ascension 21h 11m and declination -47.2°.
Finding NGC 7038 from Alnair
NGC 7038 lies 9.0° west of Alnair, the magnitude 1.7 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 7038 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 43°N, and never sets south of 43°S.
NGC 7038 is 230 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 7038 tonight left it about 230 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 324 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Hubble flow, v=4930 km/s, H0=70.
Objects within 6° of NGC 7038
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
