Virgo Galaxy (M87) Observation Details
M87 Daily Motion
M87 will rise before twilight begins, at 18:36, and will reach 61° elevation by the time twilight commences at 00:14. It will reach its transit at 65° by 01:14 and gradually fade away as the night ends at 06:15, maintaining an elevation of around 19°.M87 will be visible until July, 27, 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.
M87 Visibility Timetable on April 03
M87 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 23.7% illuminated | 09:48 | -20° |
| M87 rise | 18:36 | |
| Sunset | 19:54 | 15° |
| Civil sunset | 20:21 | 21° |
| Astrosession begin | 21:25 | 33° |
| M87 transit | 01:14 | 65° |
| Moon Set | 01:39 | 64° |
| Astrosession end | 05:43 | 25° |
| Civil sunrise | 06:46 | 13° |
| Sunrise | 07:14 | 7° |
| M87 set | 07:52 |
Track M87 Position Throughout the Night
← Thu, 3 April 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M87 - Virgo A
M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy located in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. M87 is one of the largest and most massive galaxies in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
M87 spans about 240,000 light-years across and contains a massive population of old stars. The galaxy is approximately 53 million light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 8.6, making it visible with a small telescope.
M87 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 M87
| Object name | M87 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M87 coordinates | 12.51373, 12.39111 |
| Center coordinates | 12.51373, 12.39111 |
M87 Passage Through Night
Current position of M87
| Time | 00:14 |
| Latitude | 37.751 |
| Longitude | -97.822 |
| M87 elevation | 61° |
| M87 Azimuth | -148° |
Annual motion of M87
| Date | Fri, 4 April 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 21:26 |
| Twighlight end | 05:40 |
| Twighlight duration | 8h 14m |
| Rise | 18:32 |
| Set | 07:48 |
| Elevation at transit | 65° |
| Transit time | 01:10 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 12h 30m 49s", Dec: 12° 23' 27s |
| Magnitude | 9 |
| Constellation | Virgo |
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 M87 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.