M66 Observation Details
M66 Daily Motion
M66 will be visible throughout the entire night. It will rise at 18:57, just before twilight begins, and will be at 3° when twilight starts at 19:15. It will reach its transit at 65° at 01:37, and will fade away as twilight ends at 06:13, being at 24° elevation.M66 will be visible until July, 5, when it will move too close to the Sun. During this time, its proximity to the Sun will cause it to disappear from the night sky, making it unobservable for a while.
M66 Visibility Timetable on February 23
M66 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 34.1% illuminated | 03:27 | 56° |
| Moon Set | 12:28 | -37° |
| M66 rise | 18:57 | |
| Astrosession begin | 19:45 | 9° |
| M66 transit | 01:37 | 65° |
| Astrosession end | 05:43 | 30° |
| Civil sunrise | 06:43 | 18° |
| Sunrise | 07:11 | 13° |
| M66 set | 08:17 |
Track M66 Position Throughout the Night
← Sun, 23 February 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M66 - Spiral Galaxy
M66 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. M66 is part of the Leo Triplet, a group of three interacting spiral galaxies.
M66 spans about 95,000 light-years across and contains a massive population of stars, gas, and dust. The galaxy is approximately 36 million light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 8.9, making it visible with a small telescope.
M66 Image Gallery
DSS Blue
DSS Red
DSS Near-Infrared
DSS Composite image
The photos are taken from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), which was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) under NASA contract, using data from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Geographic Society-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II).
Special thanks to the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and the California Institute of Technology for their significant contributions.
Finder Chart for M66
| Object name | M66 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M66 coordinates | 11.33749, 12.99153 |
| Center coordinates | 11.33749, 12.99153 |
M66 Passage Through Night
Current position of M66
| Time | 10:36 |
| Latitude | 37.751 |
| Longitude | -97.822 |
| M66 elevation | -23° |
| M66 Azimuth | 50° |
Annual motion of M66
| Date | Sun, 23 February 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 19:41 |
| Twighlight end | 05:37 |
| Twighlight duration | 10h 57m |
| Rise | 18:57 |
| Set | 08:17 |
| Elevation at transit | 65° |
| Transit time | 01:37 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 11h 20m 14s", Dec: 12° 59' 29s |
| Magnitude | 9 |
| Constellation | Leo |
The graph is structured with the vertical axis showing the hours of the day, ranging from 12 AM to 12 AM the next day, while the horizontal axis spans each day of the year.
The reddish shaded area indicates the periods when the M66 is above the horizon, visible to observers. The white line marks the times when the celestial object reaches its highest point in the sky each day, known as the transit.
Data Credits
The nebulae information on this page is sourced from the OpenNGC project, developed by Matteo Verga. OpenNGC provides detailed data on the NGC catalog, which is a valuable resource for exploring deep-sky objects such as nebulae.
For more details or to contribute to OpenNGC, visit the official GitHub repository: OpenNGC on GitHub.