The sunflower (M63) and blackeye galaxy (M64)
by Vern on Mar.29, 2006, under Astronomy, Deep sky, Galaxy
The sky cleared last night for a while and I was able to image a couple galaxies. Conditions were not great, occasional high thin clouds, only fair turbulence (5/10), and fair transparency as well. Temperature was a comfortable 48 °F and there was no wind.
First was the sun flower galaxy, Messier 63 (NGC 5055) in the constellation Canis Venatici. Its spiral arms are all short arcs rather than long, well defined spiral arms. M63 has a bright nucleus inside a mottled oval core.
The black eye galaxy, Messier 64 (NGC 4826), in constellation Coma Berenices is an amazing object. It has a large bright central core with a conspicuous dark patch adjacent a bright ring in the north east. William Hershel noted the “black eye” appearance way back in 1785.
Equipment used was a Celestron Nexstar11 mounted on an APT wedge, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam2 video camera. Images were dark subtracted, flat field corrected, and stacked with Registax3. Approximately 30 minutes of 8.5 second exposures.
