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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 6:42 
Transit: 12:53 
Sunset: 19:03
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All Constellations »  Antlia »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia

Below the horizon.  Never rises today
Alt: -14.66°   Az: 222.26°   Direction: South-West

NGC 3278 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Antlia constellation. NGC 3278 is situated south of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the southern hemisphere. Given its B magnitude of 13.02, NGC 3278 is visible with the help of a telescope having an aperture of 10 inches (250mm) or more.

The image below is a photograph of NGC 3278 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 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia star
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DSS2 image of NGC 3278 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (1.35 arcmin) and minor (1.04 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

10h 32m 40s
-40° 04’ 56”
03h 53m 00s
14h 25m 40s

J2000

10h 31m 35s
-39° 57’ 16”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 3278 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 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia.

Finder chart NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 3278 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).

13.02
10.3
9.59
9.33

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 3278.

22.26 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 3278 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 3278 is a visual representation of it.
1.35 arcmin
1.04 arcmin
60°

Morphological Classification

NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia is classified as Spiral (SAc) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia, Spiral (SAc).
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 3278 - Spiral Galaxy in Antlia is currently not visible from Greenwich, UK