M84 fills most of the right side of the image. The galaxy appears as a bright,-white, hazy ball against a black background dotted with other galaxies. The galaxy's core is bright-white, transitioning to hazy, diffuse white toward the galaxy's outer edges. Bands of rusty-red dust stretch across the galaxy's core. — Hubble · Messier 84 · NASA, ESA, P. Cote (National Research Council of Canada); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Messier 84

Galaxy in Virgo · 60 million light-years

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Type	Galaxy
Constellation	Virgo
Right ascension	12h 25m 04s
Declination	+12° 53′
Object distance	60 million light-years
Apparent magnitude	9.8
Apparent size	7.4′ (arc-minutes)
Approx. true diameter	129,154 light-years across
Also known as	M84 · NGC 4374

Messier 84 is a galaxy (also catalogued as NGC 4374) in the constellation Virgo — an island of billions of stars far beyond our own Milky Way. It was recorded by Charles Messier in his famous catalogue of 110 deep-sky objects. It spans roughly 7.4 arc-minutes on the sky. At about magnitude 9.8, it shows up well in a small backyard telescope.

Although it appears about 7.4′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 129,154 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.

Observing Messier 84

Messier 84 lies in the constellation Virgo and is best placed in the evening sky around March. Its maximum altitude above the horizon depends on your latitude. Lying near the celestial equator, it can be seen from both hemispheres. A small backyard telescope will show it; binoculars may hint at it under dark skies. Note that the listed magnitude is spread across the whole object — diffuse galaxies and nebulae are often harder to see than the number alone suggests, so dark, moonless skies help a great deal.

See Messier 84 in Universe Finder

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Sources

Position, magnitude and angular size from the OpenNGC catalogue (Mattia Verga).
Object identity cross-referenced with SIMBAD (CDS, Strasbourg).
Image credits and the original observation source are linked with each photograph.

Related objects

Andromeda Galaxy — galaxy
Triangulum Galaxy — galaxy
Whirlpool Galaxy — galaxy
Sombrero Galaxy — galaxy
Messier 110 — galaxy