Messier 64 - The Black-Eye Galaxy
Date: May 22, 2020
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0025
Messier 64 - The Black-Eye Galaxy (click to enlarge)
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About the Target
Messier 64 is also known as the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy or the Evil Eye Galaxy and is designated as M64, or NGC 4826. It is located 17 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices. It measures about 54,000 light-years in diameter, making it about half the size of our own Milky Way. It has a swirling central disk of dark dust, which gives it a unique look that inspires its name.
About the Project
Wow - two clear nights in a row. While this has not helped with my sleep patterns, it has been great to have two perfect nights to capture in a row!
This was the result of 49 x 120-second exposures. I was aiming for 60 captures, but a recent Window 10 update was causing some problems with my USB camera driver, and the camera kept disconnecting and shutting down the capture session. As if this was not already hard enough without Windows getting into the Mix!
30 Dark frames, 50 flat frames, and 50 bias calibration frames were also captured.
The Annotated Image
An annotated image of M64 created by using Pixinsight’s ImageSolver and AnnotateImage Scripts.
The Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Map of Coma Bernices - with M64 marked by the yellow arrow.
More Information
Wikipedia Entry: Messier 64
Hubble Space Telescope image: Messier 64
Capture Details
Light frames
49 x 120 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain
Total of 1.6 hours
Cal Frames
30 Dark frames
50 flat frames
50 bias calibration frames
Capture Hardware
Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO Scope: William Optics 132mm f/7.0 FLT APO
Guide Scope: Sharpstar 61EDPHII
Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-pro with ZWO Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Software
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second-guessing, editor regret and much swearing….
During August and September I was out shooting every clear night. I had learned a lot of things but I was also noticing several issues that were causing me problems as I did more imaging. I decided to do something to address those issues….