The sky around NGC 648 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 648 is a lenticular galaxy in Cetus, 390 million light-years away
NGC 648 (ESO 543-006) is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Cetus, 390 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 14.0 and spans 1.1′ × 38″ of sky, about 123,700 light-years across. It is faint: a 10-inch or larger telescope, or a camera, and it is highest in the evening sky in December.
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 648 from τ Cet
NGC 648 lies 2.3° southwest of τ Cet, the magnitude 3.5 star. That is within one binocular field.
NGC 648 is highest in the evening in December
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 southern hemisphere and north to about 72°N, and never sets south of 72°S.
NGC 648 is 390 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 648 tonight left it about 390 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 648
48 NGC and IC objects lie within 6°. The nearest that are brighter than magnitude 12.5 or have their own page:
