M 95 Deep sky · Galaxy in Leo · M 95 · NGC 3351
M 95
A barred spiral galaxy below the Lion’s belly, with a ring of star birth around its centre.
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- Type
- Galaxy
- Designations
- M 95 · NGC 3351
- Constellation
- Leo
- Apparent magnitude
- 9.7
- Apparent size
- 3′ × 3′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 10h 44m · Dec +11° 42′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 10 times as wide. The Sun passes 3° from it around late August, and for about 30 days of the year it sits within 15° of the Sun, lost in its glare.
When to see it
On the night of Sun 28 Feb 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT | 17:13 | 00:11 · 50° | 07:10 |
| New York EST | 17:26 | 00:06 · 61° | 06:45 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:16 | 01:16 · 80° | 07:17 |
| Sydney GMT+11 | 19:40 | 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 February, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by late May it is highest in the early evening, and in late November not until the hours before dawn.
- How bright is it?
- Magnitude 9.7 in total, but that light is spread over 3′ × 3′ of sky: on average 20.7 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 9.7 it is past the eye, but a 50 mm pair under a dark sky reaches about magnitude 11.0.
Look for
It sits between Regulus and Chertan, with M 96 and M 105 close by in a small group.
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 9.7 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (5.2 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (2.7 short); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (1.3 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (2.8 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 is a speck under 1% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 5% of the field’s width.