BEAUTY: 
BRAGGING RIGHTS: A beautiful sight
HOW EASY IS IT TO SEE? Best with a rich-field telescope
BEST TIME TO SEE IT: Spring (in Virgo)
TYPE: Galaxy DISCOVERED: 1781 by Pierre Méchain
A Virgo straggler? Astronomers believe this medium-size galaxy is part of the Virgo Cluster , though the association is not definitive. Messier 104 is around 30 million light-years away and is one of the brightest galaxies visible from Earth. To find it, start at Eta Corvi and move about 5½ degrees up and to the left toward Virgo.
Core and disk. No other galaxy shows the joining of a spherical core with a flat disk as clearly as Messier 104. Even in small telescopes you should be able to see a sharp line cutting across the central glow. In larger telescopes you might see a three-dimensional view: a soft glow below the dark edge causes the disk to pop forward. This is a beautiful galaxy in high-resolution photos, but even visually you should be able to see its general structure.
