The sky around NGC 6548 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 6548 is a lenticular galaxy in Hercules, 76 million light-years away
NGC 6548 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Hercules, 76 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.7 and spans 2.7′ × 2.4′ of sky, about 58,200 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in August.
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 6548 from Rasalhague
NGC 6548 lies 9.6° northeast of Rasalhague, the magnitude 2.1 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 6548 is highest in the evening in August
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 71°S, and never sets north of 71°N.
NGC 6548 is 76 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 6548 tonight left it about 76 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 6548
35 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
