Virgo
What is Virgo?
Constellations· Spring evenings (N) · bright Spica below Arcturus. The second-largest constellation and a zodiac sign. Bright Spica marks the spring evening sky, and behind it lies the Virgo Cluster, thousands of galaxies deep. The Sun crosses Virgo every September and October.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Virgo is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Virgo — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Spica | 1.0 |
The 1 brightest of the 7 stars used in the figure (6 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Deep-sky objects near this constellation
Constellation basics
| Season | spring evenings, April–June |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Spica (1.0) |
| How to find | follow the Big Dipper's handle arc past Arcturus to Spica |
| Area rank | 2nd of 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Virgo?
- spring evenings, April–June.
- How do I find Virgo?
- follow the Big Dipper's handle arc past Arcturus to Spica.
- What is the brightest star in Virgo?
- Spica, magnitude 1.
- Where is Virgo in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
Two stars that close in once in 169 years — Porrima
Porrima, Gamma Virginis, is a binary of two nearly equal stars orbiting each other every 169 years. The orbit is elongated so the separation changes greatly, and near periastron in 2005 the pair closed to 0.4 arcseconds and looked single in most telescopes. Once in the 1830s, once in 2005, next in the 2170s: a period no one sees twice in a lifetime.
The two stars are now opening out again, split by a small telescope, and will be widest around 2080. Bradley first noticed the star was double in 1718, and three centuries of observation since then amount to a record of a little under two full orbits. This star in the middle of Virgo is one where observations with a single telescope have accumulated across generations.
The constellation in depth
Virgo is the maiden holding an ear of grain (Spica). The Greeks saw her as Astraea, goddess of justice, or as Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and her daughter Persephone. Rising in spring and vanishing behind the Sun around harvest time, the constellation fitted the farming calendar, and many ancient cultures tied it to fertility and plenty. The Romans knew her as Ceres, and the wheat sheaf she carries is still drawn in star atlases today.
Spica is a blue-white binary 250 light-years away, shining with some twenty thousand Suns' worth of light. Along Virgo's western edge, next to Leo, sits the Virgo Cluster with M87 and other giant elliptical galaxies. The first black hole ever photographed, M87*, lies in that direction. Because the cluster is only about 55 million light-years away, a modest telescope on a dark night shows a dozen of its members as faint smudges.
Follow the arc of the Big Dipper's handle to Arcturus in Boötes, then continue the same curve to reach Spica — "arc to Arcturus, speed on to Spica". From Spica the rest of the constellation spreads upward in a rough Y. Set the Sky view to a May evening and the whole figure stands in the south. Virgo is large and sprawling, so give your eyes a few minutes to adapt before hunting for its fainter stars.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.