The sky around NGC 7138 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8 and the NGC and IC objects in the field. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
NGC 7138 is a barred spiral galaxy in Pegasus, 443 million light-years away
NGC 7138 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus, 443 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 15.0 and spans 1.2′ × 37″ of sky, about 154,500 light-years across. It is faint: a 10-inch or larger telescope, or a camera, 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 7138 from Enif
NGC 7138 lies 2.9° northeast of Enif, the magnitude 2.4 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 7138 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 northern hemisphere and south to about 77°S, and never sets north of 77°N.
NGC 7138 is 443 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 7138 tonight left it about 443 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 7138
30 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
