On 18 Mar 1781, when Charles Messier looked up and cataloged eight new objects in the Virgo cluster (M84-M91), we wonder what he was thinking. Certainly to him these small smudges weren't comets...but what did he think they were? Were they clouds of some sort? Did they excite his imagination at all? Well, they weren't comets, and that was what was important to him.

It turns out all those objects that night were galaxies. The subject of this image, M87 (aka Virgo A or NGC4486), is certainly not your run-of-the-mill galaxy, however. This small "smudge" is the most massive galaxy in our local universe. Unlike more distinctive and visually stunning galaxies, M87 appears as a featureless, slightly elliptical "blob"...but do not be fooled! While our own Galaxy has about 200 orbiting globular clusters, astronomers estimate that Virgo A has about 150,000. This fact alone speaks to its size.

At the center of this galaxy, of course, is a supermassive black hole of some distinction, being the only black hole ever imaged. The story of this image is fascinating! If you are interested, we recommend a show currently airing on Netflix called “Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know “, which features the Event Horizon Telescope team's process of imaging this particular black hole. The show also features the team of astrophysicists (including S. Hawking) investigating the properties of that same black hole. Definitely worth the time to watch if you're interested in the science.

Another highly distinctive feature of this particular galaxy is the beam of ionized matter extending over 5000ly from the galaxy core. This jet of gas is *apparently* moving at 4-6 times the speed of light. We know that this is not possible, but if you read about *superluminal motion* you can understand how it would appear that an object is moving faster than the speed of light.

For us, making these images is always wonderful ('full of wonder'); it is very rewarding as you know, but it is easy to forget the many small steps of hundreds of individuals that have brought us to this point in time, where we can look at an image and say, in an offhand fashion, "Oh, that's just another galaxy", forgetting the glorious and awesome nature of what we are witnessing.

There is so much more to the simple 'cloud' that Messier observed on that night! We hope you are always as awestruck by what you see and image and that this humble little picture of M87 gives you pause to stop and think and feel.

Daniel and Carlo

Photo by Carlo Caligiuri. Check out his posting here and check out Carlo's fine portfolio, too!

Text by Daniel Erickson.

***** Carlo's Gear for this Image *****

Imaging telescopes or lenses: MEADE 10" SCT f 10 Meade 10" SCT

Imaging cameras: Canon 6D

Mounts: SkyWatcher EQ6

Guiding telescopes or lenses: SkyWatcher 100/500 Achromatic Refractor

Guiding cameras: QHYCCD QHY 5L-II-M

Software: Adobe Phosotshop CC · Siril 0.9

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