Messier 64, the Black Eye Galaxy, is located in the constellation of Coma Berenices and is estimated to be approximately 17 million light years from earth. It is quite distinctive in appearance and has some unusual characteristics in that it has two counter rotating disks that may have resulted from the merger of two galaxies.

The image train used to capture the data for this image is a Tak TSA 120 with focal reducer resulting in a FOV of 1.5 degrees. For the presentation of this image, the field has been cropped down to about half that to focus on the galaxy. The area surrounding the galaxy is rich in integrated flux nebula which presents well in wider field images. This will be another project to capture more subs of longer exposure times to present the wider field in all its splendor.