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In Evidence

New Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) Discovered in May 2025
Detailed information about the discovery of Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) and pointers to useful resources to track and observe it. Read more...

Other deep sky objects in Ursa Major
All Constellations »  Ursa Major »  Deep Sky Objects » 

Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

Above the horizon.  Circumpolar today
Alt: 30.95°   Az: 322.21°   Direction: North-West

Messier 108 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation. Messier 108 is situated north of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the northern hemisphere. Given its visual magnitude of 10.06, Messier 108 is visible with the help of a binocular with a 80mm aperture or a small telescope.

The image below is a photograph of Messier 108 from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 0.5000x0.5000 degrees (30.00x30.00 arcmins).

Image of Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major star
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DSS2 image of Messier 108 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (3.98 arcmin) and minor (1.66 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

11h 12m 59s
+55° 32’ 09”
07h 27m 07s
18h 40m 06s

J2000

11h 11m 30s
+55° 40’ 26”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 108 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

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Finder chart for Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major.

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Finder chart for Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 108 in different bands of the electomagnetic spectrum (when available), from the B band (445nm wavelength, corresponding to the Blue color), to the V band ( 551nm wavelength, corresponding to Green/Yellow color), to the J, H, K bands (corresponding to 1220nm, 1630nm, 2190nm wavelengths respectively, which are colors not visible to the human eye).

10.7
10.06
8.02
7.37
7.04

For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.

The surface brightess reported below is an indication of the brightness per unit of angular area of Messier 108.

21.7 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports Messier 108 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 108 is a visual representation of it.
3.98 arcmin
1.66 arcmin
79°

Morphological Classification

Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major is classified as Spiral (SAc) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
Visualization of the morphological classification of Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major, Spiral (SAc).
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY

Rise and Set Times

Location: Greenwich, UK
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Messier 108 - Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major is circumpolar and transits at 19:26 UTC (altitude: 85.9°)