Spiral Galaxy M-90
(NGC 4569 & Arp 76) in Virgo
This is a CCD image
taken with an STL-1301E CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20 inch F/8.1 telescope.
Charles
Messier: (March 18th 1781) 'Nebula without star in Virgo. Its
light as faint as M-89'
M-90 is a bright Spiral Galaxy in
Virgo discovered by Messier in March 1781. It is about 1.7 degrees north
east of M-89, and is seen at about 45 degrees from face-on. The inner spiral
arms have heavy dust lanes that go nearly to the high surface brightness
nucleus. Recent observations show that a massive cluster of stars dominates
the very center of the nucleus. The soft texture of the spiral arms and
the heavy dust lanes near the center of this galaxy were described as "massive"
by Reynolds and Hubble. There is partial resolution of one of the inner
dust lanes into knots, which are presumed to be HII regions.
This galaxy is also known as Arp
76 and is in Arp's class "spiral galaxies with small high surface
brightness companions on arms; apparent gap between arm and companion".
Note the 3 or 4 dim background galaxies
in the image above, and Irregular Galaxy IC 3583 near the top of the image.
M90 and IC 3583 are members of the
Virgo Galaxy Cluster and are about 50 million light years away.
- M-90 (NGC 4569)
- Magnitude: 10.3
- Constellation: Virgo
- RA: 12h 36m 50.0s
- Dec: +13° 09' 48" Epoch 2000
- Size (mins) 11.0 x 3.0
- Position Angle: 22.0
- Classification: SAB(rs)ab;LINER;Sy - Spiral
Galaxy with inner ring, LINER and Seyfert type active nucleus.
- IC 3583
- Magnitude: 13.8
- Size (mins) 2.2 x 1.1
- Classification Irregular Galaxy
George Normandin, KAS
July 3rd, 2008