Galaxy
Cocoon Galaxy (NGC4490)
In Canes Venatici (CVn) • Magnitude 9.7 • 6.7 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Cocoon Galaxy pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Interacting galaxy pair in Canes Venatici.
Cocoon Galaxy at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 4490 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Canes Venatici (CVn) |
| Right ascension | 12h 30m 36s |
| Declination | +41° 38' 38" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.70 |
| Surface brightness | 21.4 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 6.7 × 1.6 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 87° |
| Best imaging months | Mar, Apr, May |
How to image Cocoon Galaxy
Cocoon Galaxy sits in the constellation Canes Venatici at right ascension 12h 30m 36s and declination +41° 38' 38". 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, Cocoon Galaxy needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.