M104 · Sombrero Galaxy

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Credit NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) · Public domain

Chinese name	草帽星系
Type	Galaxy
Constellation	Vir
RA	12h40m
Dec	−11°
Apparent magnitude	8ᵐ
Hemisphere	Both hemispheres
Best season	Spring
Difficulty	Moderate
Focal length	长焦 1000mm+

About

The Sombrero Galaxy lies about 31 million light-years away in Virgo, named for its nearly edge-on disk, a thick dark dust lane crossing the front, and a large bright bulge that together resemble a wide-brimmed sombrero. That dust lane is actually a symmetric ring around the bulge and the galaxy's main site of star formation. It hosts about 2,000 globular clusters, ten times the Milky Way's, and a supermassive black hole of roughly a billion solar masses at its core. At magnitude 8, it is one of the brighter spirals. Long-focal-length imaging clearly traces its iconic dust lane and glowing halo, making it one of the most recognizable galaxies.