Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  Black-eye galaxy  ·  IC 3917  ·  M 64  ·  NGC 4826
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Messier 64 The Black Eye Galaxy, Barry Wilson
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Messier 64 The Black Eye Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Messier 64 The Black Eye Galaxy, Barry Wilson
Powered byPixInsight

Messier 64 The Black Eye Galaxy

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Description

I am pleased to have been able to image from my home observatory throughout most of last week as we had an uncharacteristic stable spell of fine weather - Spring has sprung! I have wanted to image this peculiar galaxy for some time and am itching to image it at a more appropriate scale. Nevertheless my WO 132FLT has revealed some detail setting the galaxy in context.

Wikipedia states: "The interstellar medium of Messier 64 consists of two counter-rotating disks that are approximately equal in mass. The inner disk contains the prominent dust lanes of the galaxy. The stellar population of the galaxy exhibits no measurable counter-rotation. Possible formation scenarios include a merger with a gas-rich satellite galaxy in a retrograde orbit, or the continued accretion of gas clouds from the intergalactic medium."

Studying my image as well as web reference images does reveal a flat outer ring almost devoid of structure and the darker dusty central eponymous "eye".

I have presented a cropped image along with the full frame.

Thanks for looking.

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Messier 64 The Black Eye Galaxy, Barry Wilson

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UK Astro-Imaging