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Messier 49 is a large and bright elliptical galaxy located in the Virgo Cluster. Actually, it is the largest galaxy of this cluster, even larger than Messier 87. M49 (157,000 light years across) is larger than any galaxy in our Local Group (Milky Way, 100,000 ly, M31, 140,000 ly). It has a remarkably high number of globular clusters (5,900) but less than M87 (13,500). In the last 20 years, some stellar-mass black holes have been discovered in some of these clusters. In this image, the spiral galaxy near the left border is NGC 4492, the bluish blob lower left of M49 is UGC 7636 and the bright spiral near the bottom is NGC 4470.
Additional Information
Object
Name(s): Messier 49. M49. NGC 4472
Type: Elliptical Galaxy
RA: 12h 29m 47s
Dec: +08º 00’ 02”
Constellation: Virgo
Size (arcmin): 10×8 arc min
Magnitude: +9.4
Distance: 56 Mly
Image
Date: 2022-02-09 and -26
Location: iTelescope, New Mexico Skies, Mayhill, NM, USA
Size (arcmin): 43×30 arcmin
Telescope: 20” (51 cm) f/4.5 Reflector
Camera: FLI PL11002 (4008x2672pix)
Guiding: Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider
Total exposure: 3 hours (L: 1.5 h; RGB: 1.5h)
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CC 2022