M87 (also known as NGC 4486) is a magnitude 9.6 eliptical galaxy in the Virgo galaxy cluster. The Milky Way itself is one of the Virgo Cluster members, so M87 is not too far away at 60 million ly.

The picture below was processed so as to see the active jet at about the 2 o'clock point. This jet is believed to come from a large black hole at the galactic core of 2-3 billion solar masses.

A single 2 minite exposure taken at f/10 with the 12" LX200 and the 416XT CCD.

Taken Apr 16 1999 in my back yard in Monmouth Oregon.