Skies By Africa

Images of the Heavens By Eric Africa

M64, the Blackeye Galaxy

M64
M64 is a pleasing galaxy visible during so-called "Galaxy Season" in the Northern Hemisphere. It's reasonably sized and bright, enough that it is visible with an 8" telescope even from my light-polluted back yard.

M64 is nicknamed the Black Eye Galaxy. It earned this moniker thanks to its distinctly large dust lane. I recall a picture of this galaxy in an older book on the universe, and in that picture it really looked like a black eye staring back at me from the void of space.
 
Constellation: Coma Berenices
When Visible: February - May
Distance: 19 Million Light-years
Date: April 2020
Location: West Chester, Ohio
Exposure Details:
13 x 5 Minutes binned 1x1
 
Equipment Used: TMB-152 (6" Apochromatic refractor) on an Astro-Physics AP1200 GTOmount. SBIG ST-2000XCM camera with IDAS LP2 filter.
 
Acquisition Software : MaximDL
Processing Software: MaximDL, Photoshop CS5