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In Evidence

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

NGC 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens

Below the horizon.  Never rises today
Alt: -14.20°   Az: 288.87°   Direction: West-North-West

NGC 5996 is a Barred Spiral Galaxy in the Serpens constellation. NGC 5996 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 13.2, NGC 5996 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 5996 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 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens star
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DSS2 image of NGC 5996 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (1.5 arcmin) and minor (0.68 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

15h 48m 08s
+17° 48’ 23”
04h 57m 54s
20h 46m 02s

J2000

15h 46m 59s
+17° 53’ 03”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 5996 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 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens.

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Finder chart for NGC 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 5996 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).

13.2
11.5
10.81
10.42

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 5996.

22.21 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 5996 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 5996 is a visual representation of it.
1.5 arcmin
0.68 arcmin
1°

Morphological Classification

NGC 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens is classified as Barred Spiral (Bbc) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens, Barred Spiral (Bbc).
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY

Rise and Set Times

Location: McMurdo Station (AQ)
Latitude: 77° 50’ 45” S
Longitude: 166° 40’ 33” E
Timezone: UTC

NGC 5996 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Serpens is currently not visible from McMurdo Station (AQ)