Galaxy in Coma Berenices
M88
Tilted about halfway to edge-on, which happens to be the angle that most resembles what people expect a galaxy to look like. It is falling toward the middle of the Virgo Cluster and being stripped of gas on the way in.
It is one of the brighter spirals in the cluster and among the more clearly structured, with arms that stay distinct almost to the core. The stripping has already removed most of its outer gas, and star formation is retreating inward — a galaxy in the middle of being converted into the kind that no longer makes stars.
- Catalogue
- M88
- Type
- Galaxy
- Constellation
- Coma Berenices
- Distance
- 47 million light-years
- Apparent magnitude
- 9.6
- Surface brightness
- 21.8 mag/□″
- Apparent size
- 7′ × 4′
- Right ascension
- 12h 32m
- Declination
- +14.42°
- Found by
- Charles Messier, 1781
Small enough that its 9.6 magnitudes arrive concentrated rather than smeared: 21.8 per square arcsecond, which is why it stands out from the sky better than its brightness alone suggests. Why surface brightness is the number that matters.
Could you see it?
Straightforward with 10×50 binoculars from Bortle 5.
| Sky | Eye | 10×50 | 80mm | 130mm | 200mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1 21.9 mag/□″ | No | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Bortle 2 21.7 mag/□″ | No | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Bortle 3 21.4 mag/□″ | No | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Bortle 4 20.9 mag/□″ | No | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Bortle 5 20.3 mag/□″ | No | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Bortle 6 19.3 mag/□″ | No | No | Challenge | Challenge | Challenge |
| Bortle 7 18.6 mag/□″ | No | No | No | No | No |
| Bortle 8 18.1 mag/□″ | No | No | No | No | No |
| Bortle 9 17.8 mag/□″ | No | No | No | No | No |
At the eyepiece
Among the more satisfying Virgo galaxies visually, because the tilt gives it a definite elongated shape rather than the featureless roundness so many of its neighbours offer. A brighter core along a clear long axis, and at 250mm some unevenness across the face.
When, and from where
Highest in the middle of the night in March. Passes overhead at 14°N and rises from everywhere except the far south — below 76°S it never clears the horizon.
| Latitude | Highest it gets | |
|---|---|---|
| 60°N Oslo, Anchorage | 44° | |
| 51°N London, Calgary | 53° | |
| 40°N New York, Madrid | 64° | |
| 30°N Cairo, Houston | 74° | |
| 0°N the equator | 76° | |
| 33°S Sydney, Cape Town | 43° |
Nearby in the sky
The whole catalogue →This is a busy patch. 4 more of the catalogue sit within five degrees, which is a binocular field or two — worth planning a session around rather than visiting once. Everything below is measured from M88 itself, not from the middle of Coma Berenices.
- M91 Galaxy 50′ apart Coma Berenices · magnitude 10.2 · binoculars from Bortle 3 or darker
- M90 Galaxy 1.7° apart Virgo · magnitude 9.5 · binoculars from Bortle 4 or darker
- M86 Galaxy 2.0° apart Virgo · magnitude 8.9 · binoculars from Bortle 5 or darker
- M87 Virgo A 2.0° apart Virgo · magnitude 8.6 · binoculars from Bortle 5 or darker
One of 110. Positions J2000; the sky is the final authority.