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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:17 
Transit: 12:46 
Sunset: 18:15
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All Constellations »  Vela »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela

Below the horizon.  Never rises today
Alt: -39.01°   Az: 115.98°   Direction: East-South-East

NGC 3261 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Vela constellation. NGC 3261 is situated south of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the southern hemisphere. Given its visual magnitude of 11.02, NGC 3261 is visible with the help of a telescope having an aperture of 6 inches (150mm) or more.

The image below is a photograph of NGC 3261 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 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela star
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DSS2 image of NGC 3261 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (3.65 arcmin) and minor (2.84 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

10h 30m 04s
-44° 47’ 03”
17h 19m 11s
03h 49m 15s

J2000

10h 29m 00s
-44° 39’ 24”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 3261 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 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela.

Finder chart NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 3261 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).

11.91
11.02
9.11
8.46
8.25

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 3261.

23.46 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 3261 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 3261 is a visual representation of it.
3.65 arcmin
2.84 arcmin
76°

Morphological Classification

NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela 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 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela, 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

NGC 3261 - Spiral Galaxy in Vela is currently not visible from Greenwich, UK