MESSIER 90 & IC 3583

 SPIRAL GALAXY IN VIRGO (THE MAIDEN)

(Image centered at: ra 12h:36 m / dec  13º 09')

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A HIGH RESOLUTION VIEW

ANNOTATED IMAGE 100% RESOLUTION

JUNE 2026, Observatorio Cielos Albertnos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Spiral Galaxy

APPARENT DIAMETER:  9.5 x 4.4 arc minutes

APPARENT MAGNITUDE (V): 9.4

DISTANCE: 58.71 million light years

IMAGE INFORMATION

INSTRUMENT: Orion Optics UK 6" Newtonian with Ultra Grade Optics working at f 4.5

CAMERA: QHY 183 Mono Camera

MOUNT: SKY WATCHER NEQ6 Guided off axis with QHY 5II Mono Camera 

FILTERS: Baader LRGB Set 

SKY CONDITIONS: Bortle 3 skies

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

Messier 90 is a member of the Virgo Cluster, being one of its largest and brightest spiral galaxies, with an absolute magnitude of around −22 (brighter than the Andromeda Galaxy). Messier 90 can be found at about 1.5° from the central subgroup of Messier 87. Due to the galaxy's interaction with the intracluster environment, this galaxy has lost much of its interstellar medium. As a result of this process, which is referred to as ram-pressure stripping, the medium and star formation regions appear severely truncated compared to similar galaxies outside the Virgo Cluster and there are even H II regions outside the galactic plane (not visible in the image), as well as long (up to 80,000-parsec—that is, 260,000-light-year) tails of ionized gas that have been stripped away.

Messier 90 and IC 3583 (lower left) appear closely positioned in the sky and are collectively known as Arp 76. However, they are not physically related or gravitationally interacting.M90 is located approximately 59 to 60 million light-years away from Earth. IC 3583 sits much closer at around 30 to 52 million light-years away, leaving a vast span of approximately 7 to 29 million light-years of empty space between them.

Messier 90 (also known as M90, NGC 4569 was discovered by French Astronomer Charles Messier in 1781.

MESSIER 90 - ANNOTATED IMAGE 100% RESOLUTION

SPIRAL GALAXY IN VIRGO (THE MAIDEN)

Image Plate Solver script version 5.6.2
 

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Referentiation matrix (world[ra,dec] = matrix * image[x,y]):

+1.95146016e-04 +6.05698029e-05 -6.52514334e-01

-6.05905432e-05 +1.95201228e-04 -1.91603676e-01

WCS transformation ....... Linear

Projection ............... Gnomonic

Projection origin ........ [2772.000002 1841.999999] px -> [RA: 12 36 49.154 Dec: +13 11 07.56]

Resolution ............... 0.736 arcsec/px

Rotation ................. -162.763 deg

Reference system ......... ICRS

Observation start time ... 2026-06-15 00:25:42 UTC

Observation end time ..... 2026-06-15 00:28:42 UTC

Geodetic coordinates ..... 58 31 05 W 34 29 19 S 50 m

Focal distance ........... 672.88 mm

Pixel size ............... 2.40 um

Field of view ............ 1d 7' 58.7" x 45' 10.3"

Image center ............. RA: 12 36 49.154 Dec: +13 11 07.56

Image bounds:

top-left .............. RA: 12 34 08.444 Dec: +12 59 34.70

top-right ............. RA: 12 38 34.765 Dec: +12 39 27.25

bottom-left ........... RA: 12 35 03.087 Dec: +13 42 45.16

bottom-right .......... RA: 12 39 30.117 Dec: +13 22 34.15