Out on spring nights, when backyard astronomers celebrate “galaxy season,” we sweep the sky with our telescopes, hunting for faint smudges of distant galaxies buried beneath suburban light pollution. One of those targets is Messier 89, an elliptical galaxy located roughly 50 million light-years away in the galaxy-rich heart of the Virgo Cluster.
What makes Messier 89 stand out is its remarkably circular appearance. That’s actually pretty unusual for elliptical galaxies. They are often stretched into elongated shapes resembling eggs or footballs. However, M89 may not truly be spherical at all. It is possible the galaxy is elongated, but because of its orientation relative to Earth, we happen to be viewing it almost perfectly end-on.
Beyond its smooth appearance, Messier 89 is surrounded by an extensive network of faint outer shells, plumes, and gas envelopes stretching up to 150,000 light-years into space. Although the galaxy appears serene today, those structures hint at a more dramatic past, suggesting that M89 may have absorbed smaller galaxies long ago. It also exhibits evidence of energetic outflows likely powered by a supermassive black hole hundreds of millions of times more massive than our Sun.
Discovered by Charles Messier himself on March 18, 1781, this magnitude +9.8 object holds a unique distinction. Among the galaxies in the Messier catalog, M89 is often regarded as the most nearly spherical known, making it one of the more unusual members of the Virgo Cluster.
My Observations
| Date | March 12, 2023 |
| Time | 10:15 p.m. |
| Location | Seattle, WA |
| Magnification | 127x |
| Scope | Meade 8″ SCT |
| Eyepiece | 16mm |
| Seeing | Average |
| Transparency | Average |
As the hour passes 10 p.m. and the night grows colder, I decide to stick it out a bit longer to hunt down Messier 89. Once I get it in the eyepiece, M89 reminds me of many other faint members of the Virgo Cluster. It appears at first as nothing more than a smudge buried in the suburban light pollution.
To coax out a better view, I employ a couple of my favorite backyard tricks. Using careful averted vision and gently nudging the scope side to side, the subtle motion helps the galaxy pop against the dark background haze.
Once it locks into view, what strikes me most is its shape. M89 truly appears remarkably circular, showing none of the elongated, egg-like stretching so common among other elliptical galaxies in this neighborhood.
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Best Viewing | Spring |
| Visual Magnitude | +9.8 |
| Absolute Magnitude | -21.5 |
| Distance from Earth | 50 million light years |
| Diameter | 80,000 light-years, 150,000 with halo |
| Apparent Size | 5.1 x 4.7 arcmin |
| Milky Way Location | NA |
| My Viewing Grade | B |
| Designations | M 89, NGC 4552, PGC 41968, UGC 7760 |
Historical Observations
Messier 89 was discovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781. He recorded the following passage:
“Nebula without star, in Virgo, a little of distance from & on the same parallel as the nebula reported above, No. 87. Its light was extremely faint & pale, & and it is not without difficulty that one can distinguish it.”
Sources and Notes
Banner photo of Messier 89: Produced by ESA/Hubble & NASA and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Details here.
Frommert, Hartmut, and Guy McArthur. “Messier 89,” SEDS Messier Database, http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m089.html.
ESA/Hubble & NASA. “Messier Monday: Messier 89,” https://esahubble.org/images/potw1902a/.
Hanrath, Thomas. “Messier 89 – Astronomie und Astrofotografie,” https://astrocamp.eu/en/messier-89-2/
Sketch by Wayne McGraw
The Garden Astronomer 