The sky around IC 1262 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.
IC 1262 is an elliptical galaxy in Hercules, 454 million light-years away
IC 1262 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Hercules, 454 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 13.6 and spans 1.6′ × 48″ of sky, about 216,700 light-years across. It is faint: a 10-inch or larger telescope, or a camera, 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 IC 1262 from Vega
IC 1262 lies 13.0° northwest of Vega, the magnitude 0.0 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
IC 1262 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 46°S, and never sets north of 46°N.
IC 1262 is 454 million light-years away
The light seen from IC 1262 tonight left it about 454 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of IC 1262
23 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
