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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
Timezone: Europe/London
Sunrise: 6:28 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 19:23
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Other deep sky objects in Cetus
All Constellations »  Cetus »  Deep Sky Objects » 

Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus

Below the horizon.  Rise: 22:22 | Tran: 4:25 | Set: 10:23
Alt: -34.74°   Az: 29.06°   Direction: North-North-East

Messier 77 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Cetus constellation. Messier 77 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 8.87, Messier 77 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 77 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 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus star
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DSS2 image of Messier 77 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (6.11 arcmin) and minor (5.61 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

02h 43m 56s
+00° 05’ 26”
13h 34m 06s
16h 18m 03s

J2000

02h 42m 41s
-00° 00’ 47”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 77 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

Finder chart Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus.

Finder chart Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 77 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).

9.61
8.87
6.97
6.26
5.79

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 77.

22.35 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports Messier 77 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 77 is a visual representation of it.
6.11 arcmin
5.61 arcmin
12°

Morphological Classification

Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus 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 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus
Visualization of the morphological classification of Messier 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus, 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 77 (Cetus A) - Spiral Galaxy in Cetus rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 89.9°
Max altitude: 38.6°
Azimuth: 270.1°