The sky around NGC 3158 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 3158 is an elliptical galaxy in Leo Minor, 287 million light-years away
NGC 3158 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Leo Minor, 287 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.8 and spans 2.3′ × 1.9′ of sky, about 193,800 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 3158 from Tania Australis
NGC 3158 lies 3.2° southwest of Tania Australis, the magnitude 3.1 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
NGC 3158 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 northern hemisphere and south to about 51°S, and never sets north of 51°N.
NGC 3158 is 287 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 3158 tonight left it about 287 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 3158
47 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
