Galaxy
M58 (M58)
In Virgo (Vir) • Magnitude 9.7 • 6.0 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M58 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
One of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, hosting two observed supernovae in modern times (1988A and 1989M). During those brief events, a single dying star temporarily outshone all hundred billion other stars in the entire galaxy combined.
M58 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M58, N 4579 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Virgo (Vir) |
| Right ascension | 12h 37m 41s |
| Declination | +11° 49' 12" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.65 |
| Surface brightness | 13.1 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 6.0 × 4.8 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 57° |
| Best imaging months | Dec, Jan, Feb |
How to image M58
M58 sits in the constellation Virgo at right ascension 12h 37m 41s and declination +11° 49' 12". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window. As a galaxy, M58 needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.