Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 63  ·  NGC 5055  ·  Sunflower Galaxy
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M63, Phil Creed
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M63

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M63, Phil Creed
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M63

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Description

M63, aka The Sunflower Galaxy, is a prominent example of a "flocculent" spiral.  Unlike "grand design" spirals with two or more well-defined spiral arms/arcs, flocculent spirals consist of a series of disjointed arcs.

M63 is roughly 30 million light-years distant in the constellation Canes Venatici.

My highest focal length for imaging is my NP101, which at 540mm focal length isn't exactly the weapon of choice for galaxies.  But it will do the job on the larger galaxies.

Shot from a Bortle 4 sky on the night of April 12, 2023.

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M63, Phil Creed