Galaxy
NGC 6118 (NGC6118)
In Se1 (Se1) • Magnitude 11.7 • 4.5 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with NGC 6118 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Spiral galaxy in Serpens.
NGC 6118 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 6118 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Se1 (Se1) |
| Right ascension | 16h 21m 49s |
| Declination | -02° 17' 00" |
| Apparent magnitude | 11.70 |
| Surface brightness | 23.6 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 4.5 × 1.8 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 43° |
| Best imaging months | May, Jun, Jul |
How to image NGC 6118
NGC 6118 sits in the constellation Se1 at right ascension 16h 21m 49s and declination -02° 17' 00". 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 6118 needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.