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Sunset: 20:39
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Other deep sky objects in Leo
All Constellations »  Leo »  Deep Sky Objects » 

Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo

Above the horizon.  Rise: 13:53 | Tran: 20:58 | Set: 4:06
Alt: 50.04°   Az: 199.41°   Direction: South-South-West

Messier 66 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Leo constellation. Messier 66 is situated close to the celestial equator and, as such, it is at least partly visible from both hemispheres in certain times of the year. Given its visual magnitude of 8.92, Messier 66 is visible with the help of a binocular with a 60-70mm aperture or a small telescope.

The image below is a photograph of Messier 66 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 0.3427x0.3427 degrees (20.56x20.56 arcmins).

Image of Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo star
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DSS2 image of Messier 66 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (10.28 arcmin) and minor (4.61 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

11h 21m 34s
+12° 51’ 08”
00h 50m 35s
12h 12m 09s

J2000

11h 20m 15s
+12° 59’ 29”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 66 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 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

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Finder chart for Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 66 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).

9.65
8.92
6.84
6.15
5.88

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 66.

22.96 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports Messier 66 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 66 is a visual representation of it.
10.28 arcmin
4.61 arcmin
168°

Morphological Classification

Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo is classified as Spiral (SAb) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo
Visualization of the morphological classification of Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo, Spiral (SAb).
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

Today's Messier 66 (Leo Triplet) - Spiral Galaxy in Leo rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 77.1°
Max altitude: 51.4°
Azimuth: 282.9°