Once you’ve identified the three 9th- to 10th-magnitude galaxies, carefully study each with higher magnification. Which seems brightest? Faintest? What is the shape of each? Can you detect any concentration, or is the light uniformly distributed? When you’ve given M58, M59, and M60 a good look-over, it’s time to move on to the next leg of our journey.
By following a trail of stars less than a degree northwest of M58, you’ll arrive at the 10th-magnitude elliptical galaxy
M89. An almost equal push north and slightly east of M89 brings you to the spiral
M90 — also around 10th magnitude. Return to M89 and move a little more than a degree westward. What looks like a defocused 9th-magnitude star is the giant elliptical galaxy
M87.
While unimpressive to the eye, M87 is a true monster. The dominant member of the Virgo cluster, it contains the mass of 2 to 3
trillion Suns. In the heart of the beast is a 6- to 7-billion-solar-mass black hole that belches a plasma jet thousands of light-years into space. M87 is anything but unimpressive!
The final leg of our journey takes us on a 1½° hop (more of a jump) to our last two Messier galaxies. From M87, move west and slightly north until you encounter two smudges separated by ⅓°. These are the 9th-magnitude elliptical galaxies
M84 and
M86. They are the brightest members of a remarkable 1½°-long arc of galaxies known as Markarian’s Chain, named after the Armenian astrophysicist Beniamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s. Most of the remaining galaxies in the chain are too faint for small-aperture scopes under typical suburban skies. Ask your friend with the cannon-sized Dob to show you the others.
While alternating glances between eyepiece and chart, you may get lost. Don’t despair. Just return to Rho and begin anew. Each successive journey will proceed more smoothly as you gain familiarity with the path.
The Virgo galaxy cluster is one of two sky regions I find most challenging to navigate — the other being the tangle of star clusters and nebulae in the Scutum/Sagittarius portion of the Milky Way. We’ll tackle this maze of deep-sky treasures in September when it lies above the southern horizon after sunset.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email me at
gchaple@hotmail.com. Next month: UFOs. Clear skies!