About Needle Galaxy (C38)

Needle Galaxy stands out as a well-known observing object and appears as a soft glow. It is quite faint.

Current visibility

Right now it is at about 48° altitude and reaches 64° around 12:19 AM.

It stays above 30° for roughly 7 hours.

Galaxies are sensitive to light pollution, subtle features are easily lost in bright skies.

Observing tips

It can be challenging under typical skies.

What to expect

At higher magnification, subtle detail can be detected.

It is less prominent than the brightest objects in the catalog.

Type

Galaxy

Constellation

Coma Berenices

Distance

32000000 ly

Size

Season

Spring

Difficulty

Very Hard

Magnitude

9.6