We use cookies to deliver essential features and to measure their performance. Learn more.
Home
Search Objects
Major Solar System Objects
Comets
Asteroids
Spacecrafts
Star Maps
Orbits
public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 6:56 
Transit: 11:43 
Sunset: 16:29
sleep   (Nighttime)  
What's Visible Now • Tonight Timeline
Search  close
All Constellations »  Leo »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo

Below the horizon.  Rise: 0:43 | Tran: 8:13 | Set: 15:44
Alt: -17.05°   Az: 27.25°   Direction: North-North-East

NGC 3487 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Leo constellation. NGC 3487 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 14.6, NGC 3487 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 3487 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 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo star
/>
DSS2 image of NGC 3487 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (0.89 arcmin) and minor (0.38 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

11h 02m 06s
+17° 27’ 13”
13h 49m 15s
00h 51m 21s

J2000

11h 00m 47s
+17° 35’ 15”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 3487 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 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

Finder chart NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 3487 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).

14.6
11.69
10.93
10.52

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 3487.

22.58 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 3487 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 3487 is a visual representation of it.
0.89 arcmin
0.38 arcmin
152°

Morphological Classification

NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo is classified as Spiral (SAab) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 3487 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo, Spiral (SAab).
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 3487 - 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: 72.5°
Max altitude: 56.0°
Azimuth: 287.5°