M95
Galaxy in Leo
About
A barred spiral galaxy in Leo, about 33 million light-years away, also catalogued as NGC 3351. A ring of star-forming regions about 70,000 light-years across wraps around its central bar. It belongs to the M96 group with M96 and M105.
Imaging tips
- Small for its brightness: 3,460–5,770 mm on APS-C spans a third to half of the frame, so a long focal length and a fine pixel scale suit it.
- At 22.2 mag/arcsec² it is on the faint side; plan several hours of broadband data to bring out the ring and arms.
- One imager framed M95, M96 and M105 together with a large-format camera on a 155 mm refractor, 9 × 10-minute subs per RGB channel (about 4.5 hours).
- Best around February and March; it reaches about 52° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 7′ × 5′
- Magnitude
- 9.7
- Coordinates
- RA 10h 44.0m, Dec +11° 42′
- Framing, APS-C
- 3460–5770 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Feb, Mar
- Peak altitude
- 52° from 50°N, 67° from 35°N