Current Info for Observer
as of 04/19/2024 6:59 a.m.
Please login to view current observation details
General Info
| Type | Spiral Galaxy |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Right ascension | 12h21'54.900'' |
| Declination | +4°28'24'' |
| Magnitude | 9.700 |
| Distance | 60,000,000ly |
| Size | 6 arc min |
| Catalog Designations | NGC4303, M61 |
| Discovered | 1779 Barnaba Oriani |
Generate a finder chart
The following form will generate a PDF finder chart suitable for printing using to locate objects in the sky with your telescope!
The Date is only really useful for solar system objects, as deep space objects move measurably only on a galactic timescale.
The larger the F.O.V (field of view), the more "zoomed out" the object will appear. It can be helpful to print several charts of the same object with different field of views.
Limiting the magnitude (remember, lower magnitude means brighter!) of stars and objects can make sure your chart is not cluttered with dim objects that you may not be visible to you anyway. The defaults are good, but try experimenting with raising and lowering the values.
Tyler (4830)
10" Dobsonian
10 points
Austin (5562)
Orion 10'' SkyQuest dobsonian
20 points
This concludes my tour of the Virgo cluster starting at Vindemiatrix and ending somewhere along Leo's tail with M86 and M84. Never before have I seen so many galaxies in such a short amount of time. With confidence, I can say I counted 9 galaxies in total. That's one less than are in the Messier list for this cluster, but to be honest counting them was very difficult. Distinguishing them was even harder. One thing is for sure though: I observed a lot of galaxies.
Please login to post comments