NGC 4571

Spiral Galaxy NGC 4571 (= H 3.602), type SBc, in Coma Berenices

Right Ascension 12 : 36.9 (h:m)
Declination +14 : 13 (deg:m)
Distance 60000 (kly)
Visual Brightness 11.3 (mag)
Apparent Dimension 4.1 x 3.4 (arc min)

Discovered by William Herschel on January 14, 1787.

NGC 4571 was one of the discoveries of William Herschel who listed it as H III.602. It was proposed as possible candidate for M91 by John Herschel in his General Catalogue (GC), and consequently in Dreyer's NGC; we now know that M91 is very probably NGC 4548 (H II.120). Nevertheless, these two galaxies forms a beautiful pair.

This galaxy is a member of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. It has apparently a high peculiar motion toward us, as it is receding from us with only 282 km/sec, compared to the cluster's 1100 km/sec.

NGC 4571 came into discussion in summer 1994 when a group of astronomers at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) used observations of 3 Cepheids in this galaxy for a determination of the Hubble constant.

  • NED data of NGC 4571
  • SIMBAD Data of NGC 4571
  • Observing Reports for NGC 4571 (IAAC Netastrocatalog)

    Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
    Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

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    Last Modification: 21 Mar 1998, 14:00 MET