Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- User Guide
- Charles Messier
- The Observations
- The Catalog
- Statistics of the Messier objects
- Visual observation of the Messier objects
- Photography of the Messier objects
- The 110 Messier objects
- M 1
- M 2
- M 3
- M 4
- M 5
- M 6
- M 7
- M 8
- M 9
- M 10
- M 11
- M 12
- M 13
- M 14
- M 15
- M 16
- M 17
- M 18
- M 19
- M 20
- M 21
- M 22
- M 23
- M 24
- M 25
- M 26
- M 27
- M 28
- M 29
- M 30
- M 31
- M 32
- M 33
- M 34
- M 35
- M 36
- M 37
- M 38
- 39
- M 40
- M 41
- M 42
- M 43
- M 44
- M 45
- M 46
- M 47
- M 48
- M 49
- M 50
- M 51
- M 52
- M 53
- M 54
- M 55
- M 56
- M 57
- M 58
- M 59
- M 60
- M 61
- M 62
- M 63
- M 64
- M 65
- M 66
- M 67
- M 68
- M 69
- M 70
- M 71
- M 72
- M 73
- M 74
- M 75
- M 76
- M 77
- M 78
- M 79
- M 80
- M 81
- M 82
- M 83
- M 84
- M 85
- M 86
- M 87
- M 88
- M 89
- M 90
- M 91
- M 92
- M 93
- M 94
- M 95
- M 96
- M 97
- M 98
- M 99
- M 100
- M 101
- M 102
- M 103
- M 104
- M 105
- M 106
- M 107
- M 108
- M 109
- M 110
- Glossary of technical terms
- Index of figures
- Index of sources
M 104
from The 110 Messier objects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- User Guide
- Charles Messier
- The Observations
- The Catalog
- Statistics of the Messier objects
- Visual observation of the Messier objects
- Photography of the Messier objects
- The 110 Messier objects
- M 1
- M 2
- M 3
- M 4
- M 5
- M 6
- M 7
- M 8
- M 9
- M 10
- M 11
- M 12
- M 13
- M 14
- M 15
- M 16
- M 17
- M 18
- M 19
- M 20
- M 21
- M 22
- M 23
- M 24
- M 25
- M 26
- M 27
- M 28
- M 29
- M 30
- M 31
- M 32
- M 33
- M 34
- M 35
- M 36
- M 37
- M 38
- 39
- M 40
- M 41
- M 42
- M 43
- M 44
- M 45
- M 46
- M 47
- M 48
- M 49
- M 50
- M 51
- M 52
- M 53
- M 54
- M 55
- M 56
- M 57
- M 58
- M 59
- M 60
- M 61
- M 62
- M 63
- M 64
- M 65
- M 66
- M 67
- M 68
- M 69
- M 70
- M 71
- M 72
- M 73
- M 74
- M 75
- M 76
- M 77
- M 78
- M 79
- M 80
- M 81
- M 82
- M 83
- M 84
- M 85
- M 86
- M 87
- M 88
- M 89
- M 90
- M 91
- M 92
- M 93
- M 94
- M 95
- M 96
- M 97
- M 98
- M 99
- M 100
- M 101
- M 102
- M 103
- M 104
- M 105
- M 106
- M 107
- M 108
- M 109
- M 110
- Glossary of technical terms
- Index of figures
- Index of sources
Summary
The Sombrero Galaxy
Degree of difficulty 3 (of 5)
Minimum aperture 50mm
Designation NGC 4594
Type Galaxy
Class Sa
Distance 44.7 Mly (2003) 27.9 Mly (2001) 31.9 Mly (2001)
Size 105,000 ly
Constellation Virgo
R.A. 12h 40.0min
Decl. –11° 37′
Magnitude 8.0
Surface brightness 20.5mag/arcsec2
Apparent diameter 8,7′×3,5′
Discoverer Méchain, 1781
History M 104 was discovered on the 11th of May 1781, by Pierre Méchain, who noted: “nebula which did not appear to me to contain any single star. It is of a faint light.” Messier knew about Méchain's discovery, since he added a hand-written note of it to his printed copy of his final catalog, and it is likely that he observed this object himself. However, this object came too late to make it into the original catalog. Finally, the well-known French popular astronomy writer Camille Flammarion found Messier's note in 1921 and awarded this galaxy the merits of a Messier object.
William Herschel was able to see much more of M 104 than Méchain. He described it as “A faint diffused oval light” and observed the dark lane bisecting the galaxy. His son John confirmed in 1833 “that there is a dark interval or stratum separating the nucleus and general mass of the nebula from the light above it. Surely no illusion.”
A few years later, Admiral Smyth speculated: “This must be another of those vast flat rings seen very obliquely, already spoken of, and is an elegant example of that celestial perspective.” Heinrich d'Arrest, however, saw just a “bright ray, small nucleus like a star of 10th magnitude.” It took the first deep photographic exposures in the early 20th century to reveal the full beauty of this galaxy. Curtis wrote: “A remarkable, slightly curved, clear-cut dark lane runs along the entire length to the south of the nucleus; probably the finest known example of this phenomenon.
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- Atlas of the Messier ObjectsHighlights of the Deep Sky, pp. 338 - 340Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008