Celestia Forums

Hello!
I'm trying to observe galaxies from Earth, and I've just discovered that anything more than about 1.25e7 lightyears away doesn't show up at all in the sky. Too bad! Any way around this?

There's a limit around 16ly...I think.

Anonymous guest,

the 16K limit is only for drawing stars.

Guest billc,

How did you determine that you couldn't see galaxies beyond 1.25e7 ly?

The "galaxies_extended.dsc" addon defines galaxies more distant than that. NGC 5839 is at a distance of 7.6e7 ly, for example. I have no trouble seeing it on my system. The "galaxy_clusters.dsc" addon includes clusters of galaxies at distances greater than 3e9 ly. I have no problems seeing the blob representing the cluster A895 at 3.887e9 ly, either telescopically or by going there.

These catalog files are available in http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/galaxies.zip

added slightly later:

3DS models of galaxies can be seen at greater distances, too. There's a crude model of NGC4622 available in http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/ngc4622-4.zip. Its DSC file places it at a distance of 111e6, which is the same as 1.11e8. It's quite visible on my system, else I would have screamed about it long ago.

Thank you both for your prompt replies. And thank you Selden for all the galaxy and cluster info (and everything else!) you've provided. I have no problem seeing the galaxies in your list if I go to them, but if I try to see them "telescopically", they're not in my sky unless I approach them. At about 1.25e7 light years away they suddenly pop into view. If I back up (increasing the distance), they pop out of view. Judging by your response, I guess it isn't the program. Is it my computer system?