Observation by David Davies: M58

Uploaded by

David Davies

Observer

David Davies

Observed

2022 Apr 27 - 23:23

Uploaded

2022 May 20 - 11:39

Objects

M58
IC3604

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Constellation

Virgo

Field centre

RA: 12^h37^m
Dec: +11°48'
Position angle: +0°07'

Field size

0°28' × 0°21'

Equipment

200mm Ritchey-Chretien telescope
QSI 683 camera
SW EQ8 mount

Exposure

25 x 3-min lum, 12 x 3-min RGB all binned 2 x 2

Location

Cambridge, UK

Target name

Messier 58, NGC 4579

Title

M58

About this image

Here is another Messier object from my 2022 spring collection.

Charles Messier discovered M 58 when he was observing a comet on 15th April 1779. He characterised it as a "very faint nebula". In 1830, John Herschell described it as rather mottled "as if with stars", which was the first hint at a spiral structure. M58 is a transitional barred spiral galaxy, 63 million light-years away and is a member of the Virgo cluster.

M58 is around mag 10 and the bright star to the west of the galaxy is mag 7. The fainter galaxy, IC 3604 to the lower left is mag 16 and there are many fainter galaxies (mag 18) in this image.

I'm now running my QSI 683 in binned 2 x 2 mode when on my RC 8 scope (1660mm focal length). This is giving me virtually optimum image scale and some nice clean data.

Files associated with this observation

M58.jpg (799.7 kB)

Like this image

Mattia Piccoli, Callum Potter, Graham Winstanley, Alan Thomas

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