Introduction

Spring is Galaxy Season! In Virgo and Coma Berenices is the heart of the Virgo cluster with thousands of galaxies. But there are many that are reachable even with small telescopes.

Here are 10. All within a small part of the sky (within a 6° circle), with a range of shapes.

How many can you find?

Objects

Name	Type	RA	Dec	Mag.	Size	Con.	Dist.
M 84	Elliptical	12h 25.1m	+12° 53.2'	9.8	7.4'	Vir	55 Mly
M 86	Elliptical	12h 26.2m	+12° 56.8'	8.9	11.5'	Vir	52 Mly
M 87	Elliptical	12h 30.8m	+12° 23.4'	9.0	7.1'	Vir	54 Mly
M 88	Spiral	12h 32.0m	+14° 25.2'	10.3	8.7'	Com	47 Mly
M 90	Spiral	12h 36.8m	+13° 09.8'	10.7	9.1'	Vir	59 Mly
M 91	Spiral	12h 35.4m	+14° 29.8'	11.0	5.5'	Com	63 Mly
M 99	Spiral	12h 18.8m	+14° 25.0'	9.8	5.0'	Com	45 Mly
M 100	Intermediate	12h 22.9m	+15° 49.3'	9.5	6.0'	Com	55 Mly
NGC 4216	Intermediate	12h 15.9m	+13° 09.0'	9.9	7.8'	Vir	55 Mly
NGC 4302	Spiral	12h 21.7m	=14° 35.9'	11.5	6.0'	Com	~54 Mly

(1 Mly = 1 million light years)

Descriptions

M 84 and M 86

This is something of two-fer since they’re only 0.3° apart, so can fit in most wide eyepiece fields of view.

Both are ellipticals, and are at the head of “Markarian’s Chain” so you might be able to detect some of the fainter members trailing off to the East from this pair.

M 87 = Virgo A

One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local universe: it has probably consumed many other galaxies in past encounters. It has over 15,000 globular clusters (about 100x the number the Milky Way has). It’s close to the graviational center of the Virgo Cluster (no doubt adding to its cannabalistic nature).

Observationally, like most ellipticals, there’s not much see - they generally look like a soft, puffy cotton ball: but this ball holds a secret: a central super-massive black hole at the center that creates a jet of plasma (which you might see as a blue spot in the image) traveling at relativistic speeds.

M 88

This spiral galaxy has very tight arms, and a very bright nucleus. At present, it’s about 1.5 Mly from the center of the Virgo cluster, and on a direct course towards it (and M 87) where it will arrive in about 200-300 million years. When that happens it will probably be consummed by the giant elliptical.

In smaller telescopes, the halo will appear as slightly elongated. You’ll need a larger scope to detect the spiral arms.

M 90

This is labelled as an “intermediate spiral galaxy” which just means that it has features of both “regular” spiral galaxies and “barred” sprial galaxies. Here, the structure in the center has some mottling, but the outer spiral arms are very faint and indistinct. With a small telescope, you’ll see the elongated core with a bright center.

M 91

Here’s a face-on spiral, but with the interesting twist that only one spiral arm dominates (and is still fairly faint). The center definitely shows a bar-like structure, and the nucleus is very stellar looking,

In small telescopes, you’ll probably notice that it’s elongated with an oval haze surrounding it,

M 99

“St. Catherine’s Wheel” is another face-on spiral (though a little lopsided) but a little more “classic” in that it has spiral arms dotted with star-forming regions. It’s slightly disturbed shape is probably due to graviational effects from an encounter with a nearby galaxy (M 98 is a good contender).

In medium telescopes (6-10") and dark skies, you might be able to detect that it’s just quite round, and should be able to discern pieces of the spiral arms.

M 100

Yet another face-on galaxy, and another that has clearly felt the gravitational effects of its neighbors. The spiral arms start out from the center, bright and peppered with star-formation, but then abruptly that activity ends, leaving the outer parts of the arms fainter and more indistinct. One of the arms seems pulled away from the galaxy - another sign that this galaxy has a “past” still feeling the effects of a past encounter.

NGC 4216

Somehow Messier missed this galaxy in his catalog. Now we have an edge-on galaxy - very pencil or needle-like. But wait! There are two other fainter companions on either side, that are also (coincidentally) edge-on galaxies too! NGC 4206 (12’ SW, mag 14.8, 4.7’x0.9’) will be hard to detect even in a medium telescope; NGC 4222 (12’ NE, mag 14.3, 2.8’ x 0.4’) only slightly easier, but if you have a “smart” scope you can definitely capture all three in the same field of view with enough exposure (a couple of hours).

NGC 4298 and NGC 4302 = a curious pairing

Finally another two-fer, and what a weird setup this one is! First they are at different angles to our line of sight: NGC 4298 is nearly face-on, and is described as “flocculent” (fluffy) with tight spiral arms. It’ll probably look like a fuzzy oval in most scopes. Only 3’ to the East is NGC 4302 - edge-on with a prominent dust lane.

Again if you have an imaging telescope - this pair is something of a “wow” object, and since they’re not in the Messier or Caldwell catalogs tend to be overlooked by many observers.

Finder Chart

All of the galaxies here are in the same region of the sky - and there dozens of others to encounter!

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