The sky around NGC 7462 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 7462 is a barred spiral galaxy (SBbc) in Grus, 31 million light-years away
NGC 7462 (ESO 346-028, PGC 70324) is a barred spiral galaxy (SBbc) in the constellation Grus, 31 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 12.2 and spans 5′ × 48″ of sky, about 44,500 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 7462 from Tiaki
NGC 7462 lies 7.1° northeast of Tiaki, the magnitude 2.1 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 7462 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 49°N, and never sets south of 49°S.
NGC 7462 is 31 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 7462 tonight left it about 31 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 72 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 7462
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
