The sky around IC 4297 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 4297 is a barred spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, 367 million light-years away
IC 4297 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, 367 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 15.0 and spans 53″ × 24″ of sky, about 93,800 light-years across. It is faint: a 10-inch or larger telescope, or a camera, and it is highest in the evening sky in June.
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 4297 from Arcturus
IC 4297 lies 11.8° northwest of Arcturus, the magnitude -0.1 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
IC 4297 is highest in the evening in June
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 64°S, and never sets north of 64°N.
IC 4297 is 367 million light-years away
The light seen from IC 4297 tonight left it about 367 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of IC 4297
75 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
