The sky around NGC 7418 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 7418 is a spiral galaxy (Sc) in Grus, 56 million light-years away
NGC 7418 (ESO 406-025, PGC 70069) is a spiral galaxy (Sc) in the constellation Grus, 56 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.0 and spans 3.7′ × 2.8′ of sky, about 60,300 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 7418 from Fomalhaut
NGC 7418 lies 7.4° south of Fomalhaut, the magnitude 1.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 7418 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 53°N, and never sets south of 53°S.
NGC 7418 is 56 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 7418 tonight left it about 56 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 119 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 7418
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
