M 86 Deep sky · Galaxy in Virgo · M 86 · NGC 4406
Faust V051
A big galaxy in the Virgo Cluster that is moving towards us — one of the few in the sky whose light is shifted to the blue.
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- Type
- Galaxy
- Designations
- M 86 · NGC 4406
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Apparent magnitude
- 8.9
- Apparent size
- 9′ × 6′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 12h 26m · Dec +12° 57′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 3.5 times as wide. The Sun passes 14° from it around late September, and for about 8 days of the year it sits within 15° of the Sun, lost in its glare.
When to see it
On the night of Fri 26 Mar 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT | 17:06 | 00:11 · 51° | 07:16 |
| New York EDT | 18:21 | 01:05 · 62° | 07:49 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:16 | 01:16 · 79° | 07:16 |
| Sydney GMT+11 | 19:43 | 01:07 · 43° | 06:31 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 53° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 42° 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 8.9 in total, but that light is spread over 9′ × 6′ of sky: on average 21.8 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 8.9 it is past the eye, but a 50 mm pair under a dark sky reaches about magnitude 11.0.
Look for
It sits at the western end of Markarian’s Chain, a curve of galaxies across the core of the Virgo Cluster.
Science
Its own motion through the cluster is so fast that it outruns the expansion of the universe in our direction.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 53°; from 35° north it climbs to 68°; from the equator it climbs to 77°; from 35° south it climbs to 42°.
Look for
Magnitude 8.9 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (4.4 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (1.9 short); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (2.1 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (3.6 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 2% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 15% of the field’s width.