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public Observing fromLocation: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt
north SunriseRise: 4:44  
clear_day Transit: 12:57  
SunsetSet: 21:11 south
wb_twilight  • Nautical Twilight • What's Visible Now

In Evidence

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Other deep sky objects in Centaurus
All Constellations »  Centaurus »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus

Altitude: -24.5°   Azimuth: 249.3°   Direction: West-South-West

NGC 5253 is a Barred Spiral Galaxy in the Centaurus constellation. NGC 5253 is situated south of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the southern hemisphere.

NGC 5253
Galaxy
Centaurus

NGC 5253 is below the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt.

Altitude: -24.5°
Azimuth: 249.3°
Direction: West-South-West

See also NGC 5253 rise and set times.

Given its visual magnitude of 10.49, NGC 5253 is visible with the help of a binocular with a 80mm aperture or a small telescope.

Available Resources for NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus

Photometric information of NGC 5253

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 5253 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).

10.94
10.49
9.05
8.5
8.29

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 5253.

22.28 mag/arcsec2

Apparent size of NGC 5253

The following table reports NGC 5253 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 5253 is a visual representation of it.
5.01 arcmin
2.12 arcmin
43°

Digitized Sky Survey image of NGC 5253

The image below is a photograph of NGC 5253 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 0.5x0.5 degrees (30x30 arcmins).

Image of NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus star
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DSS2 image of NGC 5253 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (5.01 arcmin) and minor (2.12 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus morphological classification

NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus is classified as Barred Spiral (Bm) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus, Barred Spiral (Bm).
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY

Celestial coordinates and finder chart of NGC 5253

Celestial coordinates for the J2000 equinox of NGC 5253 are provided in the following table:

13h 39m 56s
-31° 38’ 24”

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 5253 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 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus.

Finder chart NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus star
Simplified finder chart for NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus.

Rise ans set times of NGC 5253 from your location

Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Today's NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 121.6°
Max altitude: 6.9°
Azimuth: 238.4°
NGC 5253 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Centaurus is below the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom