M 104 is an easy star hop west of Spica and is a striking Messier galaxy to visually behold. The “Sombrero Galaxy” lies along the border of Virgo and Corvus and glows at a relatively bright magnitude 8.5. Its edge-on perspective presents a nice view of its prominent dark dust lane. The extremely bright nucleus is believed to harbor a super massive black hole. Its large and symmetrical bulging halo is populated by numerous globular clusters.
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