Galaxy
Centaurus A (NGC5128)
In Centaurus (Cen) • Magnitude 7.2 • 26 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Centaurus A pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A peculiar lenticular galaxy with a prominent dust band, the closest active radio galaxy.
Centaurus A at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 5128 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Centaurus (Cen) |
| Right ascension | 13h 25m 27s |
| Declination | -43° 01' 09" |
| Apparent magnitude | 7.20 |
| Surface brightness | 23.6 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 25.9 × 19.8 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 2° |
| Best imaging months | Mar, Apr, May, Jun |
How to image Centaurus A
Centaurus A sits in the constellation Centaurus at right ascension 13h 25m 27s and declination -43° 01' 09". 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, Centaurus A needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.