M63 Sunflower Galaxy (Dale A Chamberlain)

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

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M63 Sunflower Galaxy

Link: https://chamberlainobservatory.com/index.php/welcome-to-the-chamberlain-observatory-website/photo-gallery/m63-sunflower-galaxy/

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

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M63 Sunflower Galaxy

Link: https://chamberlainobservatory.com/index.php/welcome-to-the-chamberlain-observatory-website/photo-gallery/m63-sunflower-galaxy/

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

Messier 63 or M63, also known as NGC 5055 or the seldom-used Sunflower Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. M63 was first discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, then later verified by his colleague Charles Messier on June 14, 1779. The galaxy became listed as object 63 in the Messier Catalogue. In the mid-19th century, Anglo-Irish astronomer Lord Rosse identified spiral structures within the galaxy, making this one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified.

There is a general lack of large scale continuous spiral structure in visible light, so it is considered a flocculent galaxy. However, when observed in the near-infrared, a symmetric, two-arm structure is seen. Each arm wraps 150° around the galaxy and extends out to 13,000 light-years (4,000 parsecs) from the nucleus.

The distance to M63, based upon the luminosity-distance measurement is 29,300,000 light-years

In 1971, a supernova with a magnitude of 11.8 appeared in one of the arms of M63. It was discovered on May 24, 1971, and reached peak light around May 26.

This year, 2020, has been horrific on several levels; and one, in particular, is this has been the worst for sky seeing conditions. The forecast called for clear skies on May 31, but nature had other intentions. Even though there were periods of clear openings, the atmosphere was too saturated with moisture to get good images. This one was challenging. Only 26 out of 40 subframes were usable. I am not happy with the results, but this is the best I could tease out.

Cloudy Nights
Ritchey Chretien telescopes GSO Family
Central USA

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

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	3577228
PixInsight job	TYQR0QV9J3R4JABIPDMP4E37BKWRC3Q7
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	13h15m49s.282
RA (top/left)	13h14m33s.159
RA (top/right)	13h17m05s.756
RA (bottom/right)	13h17m05s.805
RA (bottom/left)	13h14m32s.840

Dec (center)	+42°01′45″.50
Dec (top/left)	+41°52′12″.50
Dec (top/right)	+41°52′15″.24
Dec (bottom/right)	+42°11′10″.79
Dec (bottom/left)	+42°11′05″.83

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M63 Sunflower Galaxy

M63 Sunflower Galaxy

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M63 Sunflower Galaxy

M63 Sunflower Galaxy

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