101 Must-See Cosmic Objects: M100

Just 2° northeast of 6th-magnitude 6 Comae Berenices is 9th-magnitude M100. Located some 55 million light-years distant, it is the Virgo Cluster’s brightest spiral galaxy. The galaxy was another find in 1781 by French comet hunter Pierre Méchain, who notified his comet companion Charles Messier. Like M98 and M99, Messier found it difficult to detect, possible “only under great conditions, and near meridian passage.”

One can only imagine their reaction had they live