Sombrero Galaxy (M104)

Seen almost edge-on, with a dark dust lane — it looks just like a hat!

Also called: M104.

🕒 When can I see it?🚀 Travel there

Sombrero Galaxy (M104) — Drawn, not photographed.

What it is

Edge-on spiral galaxy with a huge bulge and sharp dust lane, giving it a hat-like shape.

Spiral galaxy: A flat disc of stars wound into arms. Ours is one. Every kind of thing there is →

How to find the Sombrero Galaxy

Look in the constellation Virgo.

It is best placed in the spring if you are north of the equator.

From the southern hemisphere, look in the autumn.

Visible mainly from the both half of the world.

Star-hop: A bright streak in a 6-inch scope; the famous dust lane needs 8 inches and steady, dark skies.

The Planetarium works out where it actually is from your own place and the date — including whether it is above the horizon at all tonight.

Show me the Sombrero Galaxy in tonight's sky

What you will really see

Through a small telescope, on a good night

A faint fuzzy oval of soft light — the bright core shows; the arms only hint at themselves.

Honest, not glamorous — why the pictures here are drawn.

🔭 See it drawn as it looks through a telescope

Worth knowing about the Sombrero Galaxy

On that same scale, the Sombrero Galaxy would be about 29 kilometers away. Light takes 29.3 million years to get here from the Sombrero Galaxy, so what you are looking at is the Sombrero Galaxy as it was 29.3 million years ago.

What it is made of: A spiral galaxy seen almost edge-on, with a huge central bulge and a dark, sharp dust lane.; How we know: Stars near the center orbit too fast to be held by ordinary stars and gas alone, revealing an enormous invisible mass. Rung 6 — the distance to other galaxies
What makes it worth knowing: Central black hole around 1 billion solar masses, one of the most massive measured in a nearby galaxy.

The numbers