M 100

The galaxy M100 is one of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. The galaxy is in the spring constellation Coma Berenices and can be seen through a moderate-sized amateur telescope. M100 is spiral shaped, like our Milky Way, and tilted nearly face-on as seen from earth. The galaxy has two prominent arms of bright stars and several fainter arms. M100 has been imaged extensively by the Hubble Space Telescope, which finally led to the discovery of over 20 Cepheids and a distance determination of 56+/-6 million light years for M100, the first considerably reliable distance determination of a Virgo cluster galaxy.

More images of M100.

Four supernovae have been observed in M100: 1901B, a type I, mag 15.6 in March 1901; 1914A of undetermined type, mag 15.7 in Feb/Mar 1914; 1959E of type I, mag 17.5 in Aug/Sep 1959; and 1979C of type II, mag 11.6 on April 15, 1979, which however faded quickly.

Right ascension	12 : 20.4 (hours : minutes)
Declination	+16 : 06 (degrees : minutes)
Distance	70000.0 (light-years*10^3)
Visual magnitude	10.6