M 59 Deep sky · Galaxy in Virgo · M 59 · NGC 4621
M 59
An elliptical galaxy in Virgo, found in 1779 by Johann Koehler while he was following a comet — on the same night as its brighter neighbour, M 60.
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- Type
- Galaxy
- Designations
- M 59 · NGC 4621
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Apparent magnitude
- 9.6
- Apparent size
- 5′ × 4′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 12h 42m · Dec +11° 39′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 5.8 times as wide. The Sun passes 15° from it around late September, and for about 4 days of the year it sits within 15° of the Sun, lost in its glare.
When to see it
On the night of Tue 30 Mar 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT+1 | 18:13 | 01:11 · 50° | 08:09 |
| New York EDT | 18:26 | 01:06 · 61° | 07:45 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:16 | 01:16 · 80° | 07:16 |
| Sydney GMT+11 | 19:39 | 01:07 · 45° | 06:35 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 52° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 43° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around late March, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by late June it is highest in the early evening, and in late December not until the hours before dawn.
- How bright is it?
- Magnitude 9.6 in total, but that light is spread over 5′ × 4′ of sky: on average 21.4 magnitudes per square arcsecond. Against a dark country sky that average stands out; a city’s glow drowns all but its brightest parts.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- Binoculars. At magnitude 9.6 it is past the eye, but a 50 mm pair under a dark sky reaches about magnitude 11.0.
Look for
It sits just west of M 60, and a low-power eyepiece holds both: two featureless ovals, this one the smaller and more stretched.
Science
It is one of the flatter ellipticals in the Virgo Cluster — old stars in a squashed swarm, with almost no gas left to make new ones.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 52°; from 35° north it climbs to 67°; from the equator it climbs to 78°; from 35° south it climbs to 43°.
Look for
Magnitude 9.6 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (5.1 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (2.6 short); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (1.5 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (3.0 to spare). Those limits are for a point of light; its light is spread over its whole size, so it needs some of that margin in hand. Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 1% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 9% of the field’s width.