Tammy Plotner and Jeff Barber, Universe Today
Today is Sir Harold Jeffries' birthday. Jeffries, born in 1891, was one of the first astrophysicists and the first person to predict that the Earth has a liquid core at its center. Geoffreys also helped improve the understanding of tidal friction on the structure of the planet, and the origin of the solar system.
For those who wake up early, the peak of the Lyrid shower is expected - since the radiant of the meteors is around Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky, this makes it easier to spot them since the group of harpies (Lyra) is very high in the sky during this period. The stream of Lyrids comes from the tail of Comet Thatcher and the forecast is for 15 bright meteors that stay for a long time, per hour.
Tonight we will also continue our observation of the Coma-Virgo galaxy cluster and try additional challenges. This time we will arrive from the direction of the Windriatrix (Epsilon Viriginis) and move in a west-northwest direction along a chain of bright galaxies in the direction of the distant star Denobella. We'll start with the "massier-quality" galaxy NGC 4762, and continue with real-massier galaxies M60, M59, and M58.
As mentioned, our first den is located a little more than a finger's width towards the west-northwest of Nidiamatrix. NGC 4762 is a 10.2 magnitude galaxy facing us on its side, and is adjacent to a neighboring 10.6 magnitude galaxy. Most telescopes will only see an elongated lens-like patch of light in a north-south direction. Like dozens of galaxies from the NGC series, 4762 could have been discovered by Messier and his friends in the 18th century, but it was not discovered.
We will continue towards the west-northwest another finger width and we will reach M60 one of the brightest in the Kuma-Virgo group (magnitude 8.8). This medium elliptical galaxy condenses into a bright nucleus and shares the field of view with two galaxies: NGC 4647 at magnitude 11.4 and NGC 4638 at magnitude 11.3. Another touch to the west-northwest of the M60 group is also the fainter (9.8) and flat galaxy M59. A little further to the west is the galaxy NGC 4606 whose magnitude is 10.9 - a small axis of light. All five galaxies can fit into one field of view at low magnification and will roughly appear as a line of nebular islands stretching from west to east.
Returning to the east and centering on M59, now turn the telescope up to the north and slightly west towards the galaxy M58 which has a magnitude of 9.8. It is a small spiral galaxy, facing us and it is an original discovery by Messia who found it together with M59 and 60 when he followed a comet in the spring of 1779. What he did not know is that the galaxies he cataloged as M59 and M60 were discovered 4 days earlier ( on April 11) by Jonathan Gottfried Koehler when he tried to locate the same comet.
Project 365
Universe Today website
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~456504691~~~261&SiteName=hayadan
