The sky around NGC 3145 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 3145 is a barred spiral galaxy in Hydra, 196 million light-years away
NGC 3145 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra, 196 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 12.0 and spans 2.9′ × 1.4′ of sky, about 163,500 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in April.
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 3145 from Alphard
NGC 3145 lies 11.1° east of Alphard, the magnitude 2.0 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 3145 is highest in the evening in April
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 78°N, and never sets south of 78°S.
NGC 3145 is 196 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 3145 tonight left it about 196 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 3145
25 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
