Right Ascension	12 : 30.8 (h:m)
Declination	+12 : 24 (deg:m)
Distance	60000 (kly)
Visual Brightness	8.6 (mag)
Apparent Dimension	7.0 (arc min)
Discovered by	Charles Messier March 18th, 1781

The giant elliptical galaxy M87, also called Virgo A, is one of the most remarkable objects in the sky. It is perhaps the dominant galaxy in the closest big cluster to us, the famous Virgo Cluster of galaxies (sometimes also called "Coma-Virgo cluster" which is more acurate, as it extends into constellation Coma), and lies at the distance of this cluster (about 60 million light-years). M87 lies well in the heart of the Virgo cluster (together with a lot of galaxies including M84 and M86).

M87's diameter of apparently about 7' corresponds to a linear extension of 120,000 light years, more than the diameter of our Milky Way's disk. However, as M87 is of type E1 or E0, it fills a much larger volume, and thus contains much more stars (and mass) than our galaxy, certainly several trillion (10^12) solar masses (J.C. Brandt and R.G. Roosen have estimated 2.7 trillion). This galaxy is also of extreme luminosity, with an absolute magnitude of about -22.

This magnificient galaxy is perhaps the one with most known globular clusters. While our Milky Way has the modest number of roughly 150 to 200 globulars, M87 possesses a remarkable system of several thousands of these objects: Moderate estimates such as the 1976 work quoted by Burnham give numbers of at least 4,000, while more modern values go up to 15,000! 

Messier observed M87 on March 18th, 1781 "Nebula without a star in Virgo, below and quite close to an eighth - magnitude star. The star has the same right ascension as the nebula, and its declination is 13° 42' 21" north."

Charles Messier from his catalogue 

Courtesy www.seds.org