The Sky Today on Saturday, October 31: Glimpse the ghostly Phantom Galaxy

Stunning face-on spiral M74 is visible after dark this evening, showing off its bright nucleus and fainter asymmetrical arms | Published: October 31, 2026 Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. October 30: Mars approaches Leo Let’s send off spooky season on a high note this Halloween with M74, also known as the Phantom Galaxy. The best time to catch this ghostly galaxy is after darkness falls but before moonrise. Located in eastern Pisces, M74 reaches an altitude of 45° in the east by 9 P.M. local daylight time. You can find it just over 1° northeast of 4th-magnitude Eta (η) Piscium, or by skimming 6.6° southwest of brighter 3rd-magnitude Beta (β) Arietis, also called Sheratan. Ninth-magnitude M74 spans roughly 11’ in diameter — that’s quite big, because this galaxy is so nearby, just 24 million light-years away. Because it is so large, its light is spread out over a significant area, lowering its overall surface brightness and making this galaxy harder to spot than its magnitude would imply — hence its “phantom” moniker. Once you do find it, you’ll see that M74 is a lovely face-on spiral with a bright core wrapped in fainter arms, the latter of which are best seen in 8-inch and larger scopes. The arms are mottled with bright regions of star formation, and a nebula filter can help improve the view. You may also notice the arms are not quite symmetric: the western arm is much longer than the stubby eastern one. Sunrise: 7:28 A.M.Sunset: 5:59 P.M.Moonrise: 11:08 P.M.Moonset: 1:33 P.M.Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (58%)*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location. Daylight saving time ends at 2 A.M. local daylight time on November 1, when clocks fall back one hour to 1 A.M. local standard time. Early on the 1st, the waning gibbous Moon is in Cancer, just west of the naked-eye Beehive Cluster (M44). The cluster might be hard to catch today without optical aid due to the nearby light of our satellite, but should show up nicely in binoculars or even your telescope’s finder scope. Its stars are spread so widely — across nearly 100’ of sky — that observing them through a telescope at higher magnification only shows the cluster’s central regions. As November opens, the Moon floats in Cancer, not far from the Beehive Cluster (M44). To their east, Jupiter and Mars dominate Leo, with Jupiter halfway between Mars and Regulus, the Lion’s alpha star. Credit: Stellarium/USGS/Celestia/Clementine East of the Moon, Mars and Jupiter shine brightly in western Leo, to the upper right of the bright star Regulus. Brighter Jupiter should be particularly easy to spot, located halfway between the Red Planet and the blue-white star. Alison Klesman is senior editor of Astronomy magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.