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Constellation
Report |
 This
section focuses on to the constellation
Virgo.
Virgo is referred to as "the maiden" or "the virgin"
depending on who's doing the referring. This is a pretty easy constellation to find.
You may either start from Leo which we
visited recently. Virgo is due north of east of Leo. In fact, the tail of
Leo points right towards Virgo. Another option is to find it's brightest
star, Spica. To find Spica, start at the Big Dipper. Follow the arc of the
handle to Arcturus and then continue on to Spica.
As the accompanying image shows, Virgo is a large constellation. In fact, it is the 2nd largest constellation. Virgo is located
southeast of Leo... and south of Coma Berenices... and Bootes. Our main focus is the area between Denebola an Vindemiatrix...
This area is home to the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies :)
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Deep
Sky Report
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The focus of our efforts here will be the deep sky objects of
Virgo. If you Deep Sky
Observing... especially galaxies... you're going to love Virgo. Virgo is
home to the densest collection of galaxies visible in amateur telescopes. The area between Denebola, in the tail of Leo and Vindemiatrix in Virgo is home to the densest collection of galaxies visible to amateur astronomers. Known as
The Virgo
Cluster of Galaxies, this area is home to almost a dozen Messier galaxies in Virgo alone. Add in
the many smaller, more remote galaxies from the
NGC and IC
catalogs which were beyond the reach of Messier's small telescope and you have a visual smorgasbord. A deep sky observer with a large telescope under dark skies could spend an eternity in this small patch of sky. We'll show you some of the "choice" objects.
A quick look at the accompanying map gives you a clue to just how packed this area is with galaxies. Your problem won't be in finding galaxies... your real problem will be identifying them. If you have at least 4" of aperture under dark skies (larger aperture always helps :) you'll spy dozens of galaxies between Denebola and Vindemiatrix. As you increase the aperture, you'll dramatically increase the number of galaxies you see.
So... Get yourself out to your favorite dark-sky site
and get ready to go DEEP!
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 Ok, let's start things off with
Elliptical Galaxy M49(mag8.37). M49 was the first member of the Virgo
Cluster of Galaxies discovered, by the French astronomer, Charles
Messier. It is also one of the largest galaxies in the cluster at over 160,000 light years in diameter. This big, bright, round galaxy is relatively easy to find... even in binoculars. You'll notice the mag12 star which has breached the galaxies perimeter. This is a member of our galaxy superimposed on M49.
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 Next we'll hit
Barred Spiral Galaxy M58(mag9.78). This is another of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo cluster. It is also one of only four barred spiral galaxies in the Messier List. This galaxy will show some detail in telescopes as small as 8".
This beautiful image was taken by Robert
Gendler. Robert is a past Utah Skies Astrophotographer
of the Month.
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 Next we'll hit
Elliptical Galaxy M59(mag9.79). Yet another of the largest galaxies...this time of the Ellipticals. While not in the same league as M87 (below) it is nonetheless a dominant member in the cluster. In case you were wondering... M59 is the galaxy to the lower left of the image. M60 is along the right edge.
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 Next we'll hit
Elliptical Galaxy M60(mag8.83). Located approximately 60 million light years distant, M60 is the eastern most member of the Virgo cluster. It is also very large, spanning roughly 120,000 light years in diameter. M60 is pictured here with NGC4647.
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 Next we'll hit
Spiral Galaxy M61(mag9.67). This galaxy is also located about 60 million light years distant. With a diameter of about 100,000 light years it is roughly the same size as our own Milky Way galaxy. With dark skies and additional aperture, you should begin to make out the spiral arms. Increasing the aperture should even show you some mottled structure in the spiral arms themselves. The core remains essentially stellar.
This is another beautiful Robert Gendler image. Pretty cool, huh?
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 Next we'll hit
Elliptical Galaxy M84(mag9.29). Located towards the center of the cluster, M84 has a relatively rare feature. It contains two small jets which can be seen in radio telescope. These jets are believed to be associated with a
Supermassive
Black Hole of approximately 300 BILLION solar masses.
M84 and M86 are located within 1° of each other. So.. you should see both of them in the same wide field of view. You'll also see quite a few other smaller galaxies as well.
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 Next we'll hit
Elliptical Galaxy M86(mag9.18). This is another of the giant galaxies located near the heart of the
Virgo Cluster. While not quite as impressive as some of it's neighbors, it is nonetheless one of the "anchor tenants" of the Virgo cluster.
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 Next we'll hit
Elliptical Galaxy M87(mag8.62). This giant is perhaps the largest galaxy known. Estimates place its mass as high as 2.7 TRILLION solar masses! M87 also has
High Speed Jets emanating from its core... an indicator of a super-massive black hole lurking in it's core.
The view of M87 does not improve dramatically with increased aperture. It's perimeter pushes out further, but surprisingly not much additional detail is revealed. Larger aperture will reveal some of the close companion galaxies which orbit the behemoth.
The accompanying image was taken by Utah Skies
subscriber Ed Lunt. Note the
jet emanating from the core of the galaxy. Sweet! Nice work Ed!!
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 High
energy jets can be seen in this composite made up of images taken at
various wavelengths by three of the worlds finest telescopes... The
Hubble Space Telescope, The
Chandra X-Ray Observatory and The
Very Large Array.
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 Next we'll hit
Spiral Galaxy M89(mag9.81). This is another galaxy with high speed jets emanating from it's core. No... your eyesight is not failing you. These jets are not captured in visible light. They seem to show up best in
radio
telescopes.
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 Next we'll hit
Spiral Galaxy M90(mag9.48). This is one of the largest spirals in the Virgo cluster... and a beauty too
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 Next we'll hit
Spiral Galaxy M104(mag8.3). Also known as The Sombrero Galaxy, this galaxy is a showpiece object. The longer you look
at it the more detail it reveals. Of course... throwing some additional
aperture and dark skies at it never hurts :) In the 25", this is simply an
incredible sight. The dust lane which dominates this image is clearly visible in the eyepiece. This
is always one of the favorites star parties.
This image was captured by the VLT...
Very Large
Telescope. I kid you not. That's its name... It's also a perfect description. The ultimate goal of
this effort is to build four-8 meter telescopes... and get them to operate as
one. This image came from one of the telescopes. I can't wait to see what
kind of images the four of them are capable of creating.
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 Ok... so there's been all this talk of the Virgo Cluster... what exactly does the Virgo Cluster look like? Lets take a step back and view a large portion of the Virgo cluster. This
Robert Gendler image should give you a feel for just how many galaxies are in this area.
As I mentioned earlier... finding galaxies here
is not hard... The hard part is figuring out which galaxy you're looking
at. So... if you've never seen a galaxy in your telescope.. but would love
to... point towards The
Virgo Cluster and you're bound to find some!
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 Here's
another sweet shot into the cluster as taken by Utah Skies subscriber,
Ed Lunt. |
 Next
up is another Elliptical Galaxy NGC4697(mag9.3). Also known as
Caldwell 52 this object shouldn't be all that tough for you. I suspect you could find it pretty
easily in a 4" telescope...perhaps even large astro-binoculars???
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 Continuing
along we come to Spiral Galaxy NGC4216(mag10). This nearly edge-on
galaxy shows a nice central dust lane in a moderate sized telescope
(8-10").
This beautiful shot was taken by Ed
Grafton. As you may recall, Ed is a former Utah Skies Astrophotographer
of the Month.
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 Let's wrap things up with this weeks
Utah Skies Challenge Objects... Spiral Galaxy NGC4567(mag11.3)
and Spiral Galaxy NGC4568(mag10.8). NGC4568 is the larger of the
two which are sometimes referred to as the Siamese Twins.
This beautiful shot was also taken by Ed
Grafton using a Celestron
C14.
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