The sky around NGC 7257 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 7257 is an intermediate spiral galaxy (SABb) in Aquarius, 229 million light-years away
NGC 7257 (PGC 68691) is an intermediate spiral galaxy (SABb) in the constellation Aquarius, 229 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 13.7 and spans 1.8′ × 1.2′ of sky, about 120,000 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in October.
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 7257 from Sadalmelik
NGC 7257 lies 5.7° southeast of Sadalmelik, the magnitude 3.0 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 7257 is highest in the evening in October
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 86°N.
NGC 7257 is 229 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 7257 tonight left it about 229 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 323 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 7257
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
