Casitas de Gila, Gila, NM, April 8 - 11, 2024

Description:

M63, also known as the Sunflower galaxy, is a flocculent spiral galaxy, type Sbc.  Although it only has two arms, many appear to be winding around its yellow core.  The arms shine with the radiation from recently formed blue stars.  The Sunflower galaxy was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain and was the first of 24 objects that Méchain would contribute to Charles Messier’s catalog.  The galaxy is located roughly 27 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici.  It has a diameter of almost 100,000 kly.  M63 is a part of the M51 galaxy group. (SkySafari 7 Pro, NASA)

I first imaged M63 in 2021 with the 9.25” SCT and a ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro camera.  The 1600 was known to have reflection issues that caused distortions and artifacts around bright stars, especially the one in front of the galaxy.  I failed to remove those artifacts sufficiently to produce a decent image.  So, I imaged M63 again, this time using a focal reducer, a ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro camera and Chroma filters.  While the stars appear normal, my attempt to bring out the faint clouds of gas, dust and stars extending from the galaxy failed.  More luminance data are required, perhaps a future addition.

Imaging details:

Celestron 9.25" Edge HD SCT with 0.7x Focal Reducer (FL = 1650mm at f/7)
Celestron Off-axis Guider with ZWO ASI 174 mini guide camera
Losmandy G11 mount with Gemini 2 controller
ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro cooled monochrome camera (-10C)
36mm Chroma filters: 5nm Hydrogen-alpha, Luminance, Red, Green and Blue

Software:    Sequence Generator Pro, ASTAP plate solving, PHD2 guiding, 
    Losmandy Gemini ASCOM mount control and web client interface,
    SharpCap Pro for polar alignment with a Polemaster camera,
    PixInsight 1.8.9-2,
    Photoshop 2024

Hydrogen-alpha    10 min x 12 subframes (120 min), Gain 100, Offset 64, 1x1 binning
Luminance            2 min x 146 subframes (292 min), Gain 100, Offset 64, 1x1 binning
Red                         4 min x 20 subframes (80 min), Gain 100, Offset 64, 1x1 binning
Green                     4 min x 18 subframes (72 min), Gain 100, Offset 64, 1x1 binning
Blue                        4 min x 20 subframes (80 min), Gain 100, Offset 64, 1x1 binning

Total integration time: 10.73 hours