C35
Galaxy in Coma Berenices
About
NGC 4889, a giant elliptical galaxy in Coma Berenices, roughly 308 million light-years distant. It is the brightest galaxy in the northern part of the Coma Cluster, and a 2011 study put the black hole at its centre near 21 billion solar masses, now quiet.
Imaging tips
- Only 2.6′ × 1.7′, so it is too small to frame: a long focal length and fine pixel scale are needed, or accept it as one member of a wider cluster field.
- NGC 4874, the cluster's other dominant elliptical, lies roughly 7′ away (approximate), so a frame wider than the galaxy alone takes both.
- A suburban-sky image of the cluster used 580 minutes of LRGB; another, with a 20-inch scope, used about 9.5 hours and showed a shared glow around the two giants.
- Best around March and April; it peaks near 68° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 2.6′ × 1.7′
- Magnitude
- 11.5
- Coordinates
- RA 13h 0.1m, Dec +27° 59′
- Framing, APS-C
- longer than 4000 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Mar, Apr
- Peak altitude
- 68° from 50°N, 83° from 35°N