Sky and Telescope - April 2016 - 31

M99

SIGGI KOHLERT

An easy starting point is the bright star
Denebola at the tail end of the constellation Leo, the Lion. Scanning 7°° due east
will bring you to 6 Comae Berenices,
which forms the tip of an arrowhead
asterism a little less than 2° across. Three
Messier galaxies lie in and around this
triangle: M98 is ½° west of 6 Comae,
M99 is 1° southeast, and M100 is 2°
northeast, just oﬀ the northern corner
of the arrowhead. Of the three, M100, at
a comparatively bright +9.3 magnitude
and with no other bright sources nearby
to interfere, should be easiest to see. Not
only is M100 a good place to start a tour
of the Virgo galaxies, it's also a good place
to end - after your observing session is
over, hit your favorite book, magazine, or
website to study high-resolution images of
this beautiful grand-design spiral galaxy.
M98 and M99 are both about half a
magnitude dimmer than M100 and correspondingly harder to see. M99 is the
brighter of the two, but it's located very
near a 6th-magnitude star, HD 107170, and

NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR In binoculars at low magniﬁcations, 6th-magnitude ﬁeld star HD
107170 may interfere with your view of M99. However, 15×70 binos will reveal M99 as a round,
nd,
condensed patch of haze perched southwest of the star.

Gone Fishin'
Object
M98
M99
M100
M85
M84

Galaxy Type
Spiral
Spiral
Spiral
Lenticular
Lenticular

Surface Brightness
13.6
13.2
13.4
13.0
13.0

Mag(v)

Size

10.1

RA

Dec.

9.5′ × 3.2′

12h

13.8m

+14° 54′

9.9

5.4′ × 4.8′

12h

18.8m

+14° 25′

9.3

7.4′ × 6.3′

12h

22.9m

+15° 49′

9.1

7.1′ × 5.2′

12h

25.4m

+18° 11′

9.1

6.5′ × 5.6′

12h

25.1m

+12° 53′

26.2m

+12° 57′

Lenticular

13.2

8.9

8.9′ × 5.8′

12h

NGC 4435

Barred spiral

12.5

10.9

2.4′ × 1.4′

12h 27.7m

+13° 05′

NGC 4438

Spiral

13.6

10.0

8.5′ × 3.2′

12h 27.8m

+13° 01′

9.6

7.0′ × 4.0′

12h

32.0m

+14° 25′

10.2

5.4′ × 4.4′

12h

35.4m

+14° 30′

8.6

7.2′ × 6.8′

12h

30.8m

+12° 23′

9.7

5.5′ × 4.5′

12h

37.7m

+11° 49′

9.8

5.1′ × 4.7′

12h

35.7m

+12° 33′

36.8m

+13° 10′

M86

M88
M91
M87
M58
M89

Spiral
Barred spiral
Elliptical
Barred spiral
Elliptical

13.0
13.4
13.0
13.1
12.5

M90

Spiral

13.4

9.5

9.5′ × 4.5′

12h

M59

Elliptical

12.9

9.6

5.0′ × 3.5′

12h 42.0m

+11° 39′

M60

Elliptical

12.9

8.8

7.0′ × 6.0′

12h 43.7m

+11° 33′

8.4

9.0′ × 7.5′

12h

29.8m

+08° 00′

9.7

6.0′ × 5.5′

12h

21.9m

+04° 28′

M49
M61

Elliptical
Barred spiral

13.2
13.4

Angular sizes and separations are from recent catalogs. Visually, an object's size is often smaller than the cataloged value and varies according to
the aperture and magniﬁcation of the viewing instrument. Right ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0.

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31
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Sky and Telescope - April 2016

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