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Transit: 12:14 
Sunset: 17:05
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All Constellations »  Virgo »  Deep Sky Objects » 

Messier 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo

Above the horizon.  Rise: 20:05 | Tran: 3:10 | Set: 10:11
Alt: 50.75°   Az: 177.37°   Direction: South

Messier 87 is a Elliptical Galaxy in the Virgo constellation. Messier 87 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 8.63, Messier 87 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 87 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 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo star
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DSS2 image of Messier 87 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (7.11 arcmin) and minor (6.67 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

12h 32m 05s
+12° 15’ 09”
23h 53m 12s
12h 25m 17s

J2000

12h 30m 48s
+12° 23’ 27”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 87 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 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo.

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Finder chart for Messier 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 87 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).

9.59
8.63
6.72
6.07
5.81

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 87.

22.79 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports Messier 87 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 87 is a visual representation of it.
7.11 arcmin
6.67 arcmin
153°

Morphological Classification

Messier 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo is classified as Elliptical (E) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of Messier 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

Messier 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo
Visualization of the morphological classification of Messier 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo, Elliptical (E).
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 87 (Virgo A) - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 77.7°
Max altitude: 50.8°
Azimuth: 282.3°