The sky around NGC 821 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 821 is an elliptical galaxy (E) in Aries, 76 million light-years away
NGC 821 (PGC 8160, UGC 1631) is an elliptical galaxy (E) in the constellation Aries, 76 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 10.8 and spans 2.5′ × 2.1′ of sky, about 54,900 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in December.
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 821 from Sheratan
NGC 821 lies 10.3° south of Sheratan, the magnitude 2.6 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 821 is highest in the evening in December
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 northern hemisphere and south to about 79°S, and never sets north of 79°N.
NGC 821 is 76 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 821 tonight left it about 76 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 169 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 821
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
