North is roughly to the left.

Description:
This bright galaxy is easy to find in northern virgo between the naked eye stars 30 Vir and 6 Com.  At first glance I saw nothing noteworthy, just a large elliptical galaxy that was bright in the middle and gradually faded towards the edges.  But after a time I noticed a faint star embedded in the southeast side of the galaxy and two very small nebulous streaks near the edge of the galaxy on the southwest side.  Since I was observing this galaxy with the hope of seeing the jet, as a result of reading a successful observation in a 20", I immediately assumed that I was seeing two of the brighter portions of the jet.  I wrote down some notes and began to sketch what I was seeing, including two relatively bright galaxies not far to the west and one nearly stellar galaxy to the south.  However, as I was observing I began to notice a small, bright, thin extension of the core on the northwest side of the core that was visible during moments of good seeing.  I drew it in and labeled it with a question mark wondering if this was the jet rather than the first nebulous areas I had seen.  Then I decided to call it a night since it was late and I had to get up early the next day.  After doing a little research I found that what I had first thought were two bright portions of the jet were actually galaxies UGC 7562, mag 16.8, and MAC 1230+1221, mag ?.  The jet turned out to be the small feature I had noticed near the core, MAC 1230+1224 according to MegaStar.  The jet was a difficult observation due to the average seeing on this night.  But I think it would be visible in 20" or possibly smaller scopes under good conditions since it appeared to be fairly bright.  Note added 4/12/00:  The observation to which I refer was made by Andrew Murrel.  It can be seen by searching for m87 on the IAAC site.