M64, The Blackeye Galaxy

    M64 (NGC 4826), Magnitude 8.5 Sb Spiral Galaxy, Size 11.0'x7.0', Constellation: Coma Berenices.

Image Details:

• Scope: Celestron Ultima 8 OTA.
• Mount: Celestron AS-GT.
• Camera: Adirondack Video Astronomy Stellacam II.
• Configuration: f/3.3 focal reducer, visual back .
• Effective Focal Length: 609mm, f/3.
• Guiding: None.
• Location: Chiefland Spring Picnic, Chiefland, FL.
• Date: 28 April 2006.
• Post Processing: Registax 3, Adobe Photoshop.
• Procedures: Video recorded to DVD, converted to .avi (with FlaskMPEG), stacked with Registax 3, and processed with Photoshop.

This beauty, the Blackeye (also sometimes called the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy (don't ask me why)) is not much of a challenge, with smallish scopes easily showing up the strange, dark patch near the nucleus for experienced observers.  It takes a considerably larger scope (or an electronic imager) to begin showing much detail in the bright regions, however.

M64's blackeye is thought to be the result of the galaxy apparently being made up of two counter-rotating disks. How far away is it? No one really knows, with distance estimates ranging from 14 to 50 million light years.

I was happy to achieve the details shown in this shot, which are similar to what I can do with a conventional CCD camera.

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