Galaxy
NGC 1404 (NGC1404)
In Eridanus (Eri) • Magnitude 9.9 • 5.0 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with NGC 1404 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Elliptical galaxy in Fornax.
NGC 1404 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 1404 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Eridanus (Eri) |
| Right ascension | 03h 38m 52s |
| Declination | -35° 35' 40" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.90 |
| Surface brightness | 23.3 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 5.0 × 4.4 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 9° |
| Best imaging months | Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan |
How to image NGC 1404
NGC 1404 sits in the constellation Eridanus at right ascension 03h 38m 52s and declination -35° 35' 40". 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 1404 needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.