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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
Timezone: Europe/London
Sunrise: 5:05 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 20:48
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In Evidence

New Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) Discovered in May 2025
Detailed information about the discovery of Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) and pointers to useful resources to track and observe it. Read more...

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

NGC 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco

Above the horizon.  Circumpolar today
Alt: 15.51°   Az: 17.53°   Direction: North-North-East

NGC 6466 is a Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in the Draco constellation. NGC 6466 is situated north of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the northern hemisphere. Given its B magnitude of 15, NGC 6466 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 6466 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 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco star
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DSS2 image of NGC 6466 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (0.7 arcmin) and minor (0.41 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

17h 48m 43s
+51° 23’ 31”
13h 50m 53s
07h 39m 37s

J2000

17h 48m 07s
+51° 23’ 57”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 6466 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 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco.

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Finder chart for NGC 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 6466 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).

15
11.66
10.95
10.67

For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 6466 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 6466 is a visual representation of it.
0.7 arcmin
0.41 arcmin
120°

Morphological Classification

NGC 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco is classified as Elliptical/Spiral (E-S0) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco, Elliptical/Spiral (E-S0).
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 6466 - Elliptical/Spiral Galaxy in Draco is circumpolar and transits at 02:04 UTC (altitude: 89.9°)