Messier 58 (NGC 4579): Messier’s Most Distant Object

Messier 58 (M58) is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Virgo. M58 joins a robust list of wonderful galaxies in Virgo, making it a popular target for amateur astronomers in the springtime.

When galaxy season arrives in spring, and galaxies seemingly fill the deep skies, the Virgo Cluster becomes a great place to visit with a telescope. One of the cluster’s brighter objects is M58. In my case, my 8-inch scope only picked up a faint fuzzy patch from my light-polluted skies around Seattle. Just as I did with Messier 59, I had to use averted vision to make out M58 (observation below). Keep in mind, from darker locations, one can use smaller scopes, and even a larger pair of binoculars, to pick up M58.

According to NASA, M58 lies some 62 million light-years away, which places the galaxy farther away than any other Messier object! Regarding its structure, the galaxy has a ring of great activity with star birth around its nucleus. However, this activity dies off in the spiral arms due to the lack of hydrogen. Some believe this lack of hydrogen may be due to other nearby galaxies in the Virgo Cluster “pulling” on M58 gravitationally. Poor M58!

Historically speaking, Charles Messier recorded M58 on April 15, 1779. He also added M59 and M60 to his famous catalog on that date.² Apparently, he was in this region of the sky tracking Comet Bode.

My Observations

Nearly 244 years ago tonight, Charles Messier set his eyes on M58. As I wrote in my post for M59, I didn’t expect to find this faint galaxy because clouds began to form on the horizon as the sun sunk below the trees. It had been a month since I’d been under the stars because of cloudy weather. So, I desperately wanted to get in a few minutes of observing. I quickly prepared the scope, aligned it, and jumped into my list of objects. After a few double-star observations, patches of clouds scattered across the sky. However, the eastern skies remained fairly clear, so I headed toward the object, M59, and sketched it quickly. I then jumped to this object. Within ten minutes of sketching M58, the sky closed up, and my short night of observing ended.

Note from my sketchpad: Using averted vision, I can see a faint, small patch in the 12mm piece—just like M59. What’s interesting is that I’ve been under the impression that M58 should be brighter than M59. It’s not at this moment. In fact, I find M58 to be fainter and slightly more dispersed in appearance. Perhaps it’s the haze and clouds to blame for M58 looking dimmer right now.

As I move the telescope left, and right, the haze moves, so I’m able to confirm this is M58’s fuzzy patch I’m looking at. In the 12mm eyepiece, there are two brighter stars across from each other. Below this line of stars is M58. I’m sure the fluffy spot I’m seeing is really the brighter nucleus of this great galaxy. I’m certain this orb would spread wider under dark-sky conditions. Nevertheless, I’ll take what I can get under these Seattle skies. The clouds are now filling up the sky, so I’m afraid this will be my last observation for the night.

In space news: The upcoming first launch of Space X’s Starship from Texas is to occur tomorrow morning at about 6am my time. I’ll set my alarm to watch the historic occasion—if it happens!

Update to this diary entry: Space X did indeed launch Starship the morning after I wrote this observation. It slowly rumbled up the sky after obliterating every inch of ground around its launch pad. After a minute or so, the ship started to tumble and fall until Space X intentionally detonated the vehicle. I have a feeling many years from now, we will see this huge rocket lifting up in the skies routinely.

Key Stats

Constellation	Virgo
Best Viewing	Spring
Visual Magnitude	+9.53
Absolute Visual Magnitude	-21.97
Distance from Earth	65 million ly
My Viewing Grade	C

Historical Observations

First discovered on April 15, 1779, by Charles Messier: “Very faint nebula discovered in Virgo, almost on the same parallel as epsilon [Virginis], 3rd mag. The slightest light for illuminating the micrometer wires makes it disappear. M. Messier reported it on the chart of the Comet of 1779, which is located in the volume of the Academy for the same year.”²

Sources and Notes

Photo of M58 for the top banner is authored by Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license. Source file.

¹Garner, R. (2018, March 12). Messier 58. NASA. Retrieved April 22, 2023, from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/messier-58

²McArthur, G., & Frommert, H. (n.d.). Messier 58. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from http://www.messier.seds.org/Mdes/dm059.html

Sketch by Wayne McGraw