M 59

M59 is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and one of the larger elliptical galaxies there, although it is considerably less luminous and massive than the greatest ellipticals in this cluster, M49, M60 and, above all, M87. It is quite flattened, the given values of ellipticity are E3-E5 (the present author estimates E5).

In our image, M59 is the elongated elliptical in the lower left, while in the right are M60 and its companion NGC 4647, and at the top is faint NGC 4638, an elliptical with photographic mag 12.2. This DSSM image shows M59 alone, and this one M59 with M60 and other galaxies.

Right ascension	12 : 39.5 (hours : minutes)
Declination	+11 : 55 (degrees : minutes)
Distance	70000.0 (light-years*10^3)
Visual magnitude	9.6