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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 Aquarius
All Constellations »  Aquarius »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 6985A - Galaxy in Aquarius

Below the horizon.  Rise: 1:04 | Tran: 6:05 | Set: 11:07
Alt: -14.56°   Az: 89.47°   Direction: East

NGC 6985A is a Galaxy in the Aquarius constellation. NGC 6985A 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 18.42, NGC 6985A is visible only through long exposure photography.

The image below is a photograph of NGC 6985A 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 6985A - Galaxy in Aquarius star
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DSS2 image of NGC 6985A in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (1.02 arcmin) and minor (0.44 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

20h 46m 24s
-11° 00’ 51”
17h 21m 37s
14h 08m 01s

J2000

20h 45m 01s
-11° 06’ 28”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 6985A 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 6985A - Galaxy in Aquarius.

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Finder chart for NGC 6985A - Galaxy in Aquarius.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 6985A 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).

18.42
13.57
12.76
12.88

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 6985A.

24.25 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 6985A apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 6985A is a visual representation of it.
1.02 arcmin
0.44 arcmin
160°

Rise and Set Times

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

Today's NGC 6985A - Galaxy in Aquarius rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 101.0°
Max altitude: 27.5°
Azimuth: 259.0°