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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:20 
Transit: 12:46 
Sunset: 18:11
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All Constellations »  Hydra »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra

Above the horizon.  Rise: 4:48 | Tran: 9:44 | Set: 14:40
Alt: 13.70°   Az: 229.30°   Direction: South-West

NGC 3138 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Hydra constellation. NGC 3138 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 15, NGC 3138 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 3138 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 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra star
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DSS2 image of NGC 3138 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (1.1 arcmin) and minor (0.21 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

10h 10m 29s
-12° 04’ 44”
03h 15m 29s
13h 25m 59s

J2000

10h 09m 16s
-11° 57’ 24”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 3138 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

Finder chart NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra.

Finder chart NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 3138 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).

15
12.98
12.25
11.94

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 3138.

23.32 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 3138 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 3138 is a visual representation of it.
1.1 arcmin
0.21 arcmin
80°

Morphological Classification

NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra is classified as Spiral (SAbc) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra, Spiral (SAbc).
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 3138 - Spiral Galaxy in Hydra rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 102.1°
Max altitude: 26.4°
Azimuth: 257.9°