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Sunrise: 5:03 
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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 Fornax
All Constellations »  Fornax »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax

Below the horizon.  Never rises today
Alt: -10.05°   Az: 216.67°   Direction: South-West

NGC 986 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Fornax constellation. NGC 986 is situated south of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the southern hemisphere. Given its visual magnitude of 10.91, NGC 986 is visible with the help of a telescope having an aperture of 6 inches (150mm) or more.

The image below is a photograph of NGC 986 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 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax star
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DSS2 image of NGC 986 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (3.77 arcmin) and minor (3.03 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

02h 34m 34s
-38° 56’ 04”
03h 16m 26s
05h 51m 01s

J2000

02h 33m 33s
-39° 02’ 42”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 986 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 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax.

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Finder chart for NGC 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 986 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).

11.74
10.91
8.75
8.02
7.78

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 986.

23.15 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 986 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 986 is a visual representation of it.
3.77 arcmin
3.03 arcmin
52°

Morphological Classification

NGC 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax is classified as Spiral (SAab) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax, Spiral (SAab).
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 986 - Spiral Galaxy in Fornax is currently not visible from Greenwich, UK