Galaxy
Fornax A (NGC1316)
In Fornax (For) • Magnitude 14.0 • 1.5 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Fornax A pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Bright lenticular galaxy in Fornax.
Fornax A at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 1316 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Fornax (For) |
| Right ascension | 03h 24m 58s |
| Declination | -37° 00' 34" |
| Apparent magnitude | 14.00 |
| Surface brightness | 23.8 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 1.5 × 0.6 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 8° |
| Best imaging months | Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan |
How to image Fornax A
Fornax A sits in the constellation Fornax at right ascension 03h 24m 58s and declination -37° 00' 34". 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, Fornax A needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.