Bode’s Galaxy
A bright spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, close in the sky to the Cigar Galaxy.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Kind of object
- Galaxy
- Distance
- 11.8 million light years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.9, a sight for binoculars
- Size in the sky
- About half the width of the full Moon
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Catalogue
- M 81, NGC 3031
Figures from OpenNGC, CC BY-SA 4.0; the SEDS Messier catalogue, via Wikipedia’s table of Messier objects, CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- Cigar GalaxyA galaxy in Ursa Major, right beside it, a finger’s width away.
- DubheA bright star in Ursa Major, about a fist away.
- PolarisA yellow-white supergiant in Ursa Minor, about a hand span away.
- AliothA white star in Ursa Major, about a hand span away.
- MizarA white main-sequence star in Ursa Major, about a hand span away.