M85 is a magnitude 9.1 galaxy in Coma Berenices that is one of the brighter members of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. M85 looks like an elliptical galaxy in an amateur telescope; but it is officially an S0 spiral galaxy. This galaxy is over 40 million light-years away and is about 40,000 light-years in diameter. M85 was discovered by Mechain in 1781, and was added to the Messier List by Charles Messier that same year. The faint magnitude 11.7 barred spiral galaxy below M85 is NGC 4394.
This is an RGB color composite CCD image taken with an SBIG ST-8XE CCD on a Takahashi FCT-150 refractor at f7. This image was taken from my backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona.
M85 (NGC 4382)
Constellation: Coma Berenices
RA: 12h 25m 44s Dec: +18d 09' 18"
April 25, 2006
Image by Sid Leach
Scottsdale, Arizona
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