The sky around NGC 6824 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 6824 is an early spiral galaxy in Cygnus, 174 million light-years away
NGC 6824 is an early spiral galaxy in the constellation Cygnus, 174 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.7 and spans 1.9′ × 1.4′ of sky, about 96,400 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in September.
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 6824 from Deneb
NGC 6824 lies 14.1° northwest of Deneb, the magnitude 1.3 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 6824 is highest in the evening in September
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 34°S, and never sets north of 34°N.
NGC 6824 is 174 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 6824 tonight left it about 174 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 6824
11 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
