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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
Timezone: Europe/London
Sunrise: 7:27 
Transit: 12:14 
Sunset: 17:01
wb_twilight   (Nautical Twilight)  
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Other deep sky objects in Leo
All Constellations »  Leo »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo

Above the horizon.  Rise: 16:55 | Tran: 0:26 | Set: 7:54
Alt: 10.25°   Az: 284.33°   Direction: West-North-West

NGC 2946 is a Barred Spiral Galaxy in the Leo constellation. NGC 2946 is situated close to the celestial equator and, as such, it is at least partly visible from both hemispheres in certain times of the year. Given its B magnitude of 14.8, NGC 2946 is visible with the help of a telescope having an aperture of 20 inches (500mm) or more.

The image below is a photograph of NGC 2946 from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 0.5000x0.5000 degrees (30.00x30.00 arcmins).

Image of NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo star
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DSS2 image of NGC 2946 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (1.1 arcmin) and minor (0.34 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

09h 40m 25s
+16° 54’ 39”
06h 19m 07s
15h 59m 32s

J2000

09h 39m 02s
+17° 01’ 31”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 2946 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

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Finder chart for NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

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Finder chart for NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 2946 in different bands of the electomagnetic spectrum (when available), from the B band (445nm wavelength, corresponding to the Blue color), to the V band ( 551nm wavelength, corresponding to Green/Yellow color), to the J, H, K bands (corresponding to 1220nm, 1630nm, 2190nm wavelengths respectively, which are colors not visible to the human eye).

14.8
11.97
11.22
10.97

For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.

The surface brightess reported below is an indication of the brightness per unit of angular area of NGC 2946.

23.14 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 2946 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 2946 is a visual representation of it.
1.1 arcmin
0.34 arcmin
15°

Morphological Classification

NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo is classified as Barred Spiral (Bb) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo, Barred Spiral (Bb).
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY

Rise and Set Times

Location: Greenwich, UK
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Today's NGC 2946 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 73.1°
Max altitude: 55.4°
Azimuth: 286.9°