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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:54 
Transit: 11:52 
Sunset: 15:50
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All Constellations »  Draco »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco

Above the horizon.  Circumpolar today
Alt: 62.76°   Az: 344.44°   Direction: North-North-West

NGC 4159 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Draco constellation. NGC 4159 is situated close to the northern celestial pole and, as such, it is visible for most part of the year from the northern hemisphere. Given its B magnitude of 14.3, NGC 4159 is visible with the help of a telescope having an aperture of 14 inches (350mm) or more.

The image below is a photograph of NGC 4159 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 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco star
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DSS2 image of NGC 4159 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (1.36 arcmin) and minor (0.55 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

12h 12m 03s
+75° 59’ 13”
02h 01m 52s
14h 13m 56s

J2000

12h 10m 54s
+76° 07’ 33”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 4159 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 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco.

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Finder chart for NGC 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 4159 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).

14.3
12.16
11.42
11.09

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 4159.

22.92 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 4159 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 4159 is a visual representation of it.
1.36 arcmin
0.55 arcmin
34°

Morphological Classification

NGC 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco is classified as Spiral (SAcd) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco, Spiral (SAcd).
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 4159 - Spiral Galaxy in Draco is circumpolar and transits at 06:58 UTC (altitude: 65.5°)