Galaxy
NGC 1097 (NGC1097)
In Fornax (For) • Magnitude 9.8 • 11 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with NGC 1097 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Barred spiral galaxy in Fornax with prominent rings.
NGC 1097 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 1097 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Fornax (For) |
| Right ascension | 02h 46m 19s |
| Declination | -30° 16' 30" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.80 |
| Surface brightness | 23.6 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 10.6 × 6.4 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 15° |
| Best imaging months | Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan |
How to image NGC 1097
NGC 1097 sits in the constellation Fornax at right ascension 02h 46m 19s and declination -30° 16' 30". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window. As a galaxy, NGC 1097 needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.