Galaxy
NGC 4945 (NGC4945)
In Centaurus (Cen) • Magnitude 11.9 • 23 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with NGC 4945 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Edge-on barred spiral in Centaurus.
NGC 4945 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 4945 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Centaurus (Cen) |
| Right ascension | 13h 05m 28s |
| Declination | -49° 28' 06" |
| Apparent magnitude | 11.90 |
| Surface brightness | 23.4 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 23.3 × 4.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | Below horizon |
| Best imaging months | Mar, Apr, May |
How to image NGC 4945
NGC 4945 sits in the constellation Centaurus at right ascension 13h 05m 28s and declination -49° 28' 06". 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 4945 needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.