M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy (Tom Wildoner)

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

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M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

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M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

Here is a view of the Sunflower Galaxy, Messier 63 (M63, NGC 5055) found in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is a spiral galaxy surrounded by many short spiral arm segments. It is also a member of a group of galaxies referred to as the M51 Group. The Sunflower Galaxy lies roughly 37 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 9.3. This has been one of my favorite galaxies to image during galaxy season. I've managed to image this galaxy annually since 2017.

Distance to Earth: 27 million light years
Radius: 49,000 light years
Right ascension: 13h 15m 49.3s
Declination: +42°01’45”
Apparent Magnitude: 9.3
Apparent dimensions: 12′.6 x 7′.2
Stars: 400 billion
Common Name: Sunflower Galaxy

Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI290MC and ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF, 108 x 60 seconds at -10C plus darks and flats, processed using PixInsight and DSS. Image Date: January 3, 2022. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

Messier Objects
Northeast Imagers

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5797486
PixInsight job	YJWB02MXG6E2BNL6V78CR1AQMN13CXHJ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h15m48s.630
RA (top/left)	13h15m57s.629
RA (top/right)	13h17m05s.566
RA (bottom/right)	13h15m38s.493
RA (bottom/left)	13h14m30s.771

Dec (center)	+42°01′53″.94
Dec (top/left)	+41°46′55″.62
Dec (top/right)	+42°06′26″.24
Dec (bottom/right)	+42°16′52″.38
Dec (bottom/left)	+41°57′18″.60

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M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

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M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

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