Virgo Part II: Observations

Here is Part 2, the observations.... enjoy!

M49 A round glow with a bright core. A nice one similar to M87 50X.

M53 A globular cluster NOT a galaxy. It is somewhat resolved and takes power up to 109X pretty well. A nice break from those dim galaxies!

M58 A bright core, mostly evenly bright oval. 50X

M59 A bright oval that brightens more to the core. 50X

M60 It is a brighter galaxy with NGC 4647 nearby. It Averted Vision the galaxies look to touch? 50X

M61 A round glow, with a core, the round halo part of the galaxy is not really even in brightness. 50X

M64 A bright round glow. Even with averted vision not really seeing the black eye, maybe a hint of it. Kinda in a no mans land for star hopping. 50X

M84 A little brighter then M86. A bright oval with a core. 50X

M85 A bright core with a fainter halo. NGC 4394 pairs up with this galaxy.50X

M86 A little fainter then M84. It appears maybe a little bit bigger and/or extended then M84. 50X

M87 A round glow that is bright core. It has a jet, that can be seen with larger scopes 50X.

M88 A bright core, the rest is a oval glow that is somewhat pointed to the south east. Maybe a field star(s) is imposed on the galaxy in the south eastern side.

M89 A bright and round glow. 50X

M90 A unevenly bright and round glow. It has a nice core. 50X

M91 A small but bright core, the rest is just a circular glow. 50X

M98 Pretty bright, elongated but not even in brightness. The core is not every even in brightness either. 50X

M99 Elongated, with a core. Not really seeing the spiral structure with Direct or Averted vision. 50X

M100 Very bright and has a nice core that is round and small. The edges are kind of diffuse. 50X

M104 The Sombrero!, I can see two lanes pretty easily, but it really doesn’t look like a hat though. Very nice. Bright. 50X

I have included all the objects one would hunt down while doing the Virgo/Coma galaxy hunt. I also included M53 which if you are hunting these galaxies down is a nice distraction from the “dim oval” or “dim smudge” of the galaxies. I have always found galaxies interesting but with the rural skies of where I live and the size of scopes that I owned, galaxies have never really been a favorite. They really do take patience and good skies to be able to tease the details out of.

My notes I kept short for the blog and also pretty general. Hopefully they reflect pretty well the impressions that others would have under similar conditions with similar equipment.

I think star hopping these galaxies is really something everyone should do at least once. It really teaches you how to use your scope and navigate the sky in area that is pretty tough to star hop. Once you get started though one mostly just galaxy hops in this area.