help needed on coma galaxies

[richbyers]

i was trying to get some of the messier galaxies in coma berenecies however i need a hand as im not sure which ones i saw and i need to know to tick them off the m list

there was one at the top of the galaxy area which was brighter than the others and was solitary- im putting this down as m85- would you agree?

then going down i think i saw 2, but i could only really get 1 consistently- what do you reckon m100? it was in a section of quite bright stars

thanks

[Double Kick Drum]

M85 is the most Northerly of the Coma / Virgo cluster and probably the brightest in the Coma part of the group (so long as you don't count M64 which is not a true member of the group). It is near the 5th magnitude star 11 Comae Berenices.

It does have a companion but it is nearly two magnitudes feinter and I haven't managed to see it.

[richbyers]

cool - definatly what i saw

what do you think about the lower one- which is the easiest to see of the cluster lower part??

[Double Kick Drum]

M100 is the next one down, followed by M99 if you continue on that rough trajectory. These two are too far apart to get in one field of view. There are many NGCs in between but it would be difficult to hazard a guess what it could be if it was one of those.

M88 is a little further East but is quite bright too. This has M91 as a very wide companion but this is one of the feinter Messiers. I have not seen it myself yet.

Do you use CdC or Stellarium? If you can identify nearby stars it does help.

[Double Kick Drum]

Additionally, you may have just crossed over the Virgo border. M84 and M86 are two elliptical galaxies which appear in the same field of view.

[richbyers]

the galaxy was in a different field of view than m85 -though not that much lower down- i reckon it was still in coma-i have had a look on stellarium, it was difficult to figure the nearby stars, but there seemed to be a 'line' of bright stars and the galaxy- which im thinking is probably gonna be m100- was near that line

thanks for the help

[perrin6]

I think you need to make a scale drawing of what you saw in relation to labelled stars if you want to be certain which to tick off to be honest.

[richbyers]

I think you need to make a scale drawing of what you saw in relation to labelled stars if you want to be certain which to tick off to be honest.

ive been studying stellarium since i came in and im pretty certain it was m100, i can see the line of stars the are above it