M-59 (NGC-4621) is a Type E5 Elliptical galaxy located in the constellation of Virgo. It is a member of the Virgo galaxy cluster and lies 50 million light years from Earth. It was discovered by Johann Koehler in April of 1779, and Charles Messier added it to his catalog as number 59 three days after Koehler's discovery. M-59 contains a super massive black hole, and is also host to over 2,000 globular star clusters.
This image, acquired on May 21, 2012, is a 30 minute integration of 80 second exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.