M63 Sunflower galaxy (AweInspired)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 63 · MQ J131405.44+421327.6 · MQ J131426.99+420654.0 · MQ J131446.02+420117.2 · MQ J131455.74+421037.6 · MQ J131458.82+415837.7 · MQ J131500.16+420605.6 · MQ J131503.31+420042.4 · MQ J131512.34+420809.2 · MQ J131529.90+421227.8 · MQ J131537.33+421220.2 · MQ J131554.75+420232.1 · MQ J131610.01+415443.9 · MQ J131622.74+420537.0 · MQ J131706.82+420324.5 · MQ J131727.02+421006.1 · NGC 5055 · PGC 2187167 · PGC 2189522 · PGC 2189676 · PGC 2191533 · PGC 2191787 · PGC 2193890 · PGC 2194083 · PGC 46093 · SDSS J131359.33+420252.2 · SDSS J131403.48+415203.9 · SDSS J131412.35+420658.3 · SDSS J131414.84+415651.9 · SDSS J131418.18+415354.7 · And 36 more.

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M63 Sunflower galaxy

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M63 Sunflower galaxy

Discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1779, the beautiful spiral galaxy was included as object 63 in Charles Messier's famous catalog. With an apparent magnitude of 9.3 it is part of the M51 galaxy group in Canes Venatici. It lies about 29 M light years away with an apparent size of 12′.6 × 7′.2.

I usually image from my suburban backyard with SQM of 19.7 at the zenith, which usually requires 4 to 5 hours for image acquisition. Astrophotography has been a wonderful challenge with many steps along the way and just enough progress to make me want to improve.

For me, learning about the universe as revealed through astrophotography is meaningful in ways that simply looking at a wonderful photo is not. I learn what, where, how large, how bright, how colorful, and what else is in the neighborhood of the object. These are not easy to learn from simply viewing an image, no matter how beautiful. And that gives me a deep sense of wonder at the universe we quite improbably call home. It is simply awe inspiring. Down deep inside awe is a rare and humbling experience that makes all the difficulties that sometimes accompany acquisition very worthwhile.

I have much to learn about imaging deep sky objects! So many have unknowingly been helpful to me with sharing their experience and inspired me with sharing their work. I am posting the first image to Astrobin not because it is exceptional in any way, but because someone else might appreciate the beauty of the Sunflower galaxy or be encouraged along their journey.

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	3488447
PixInsight job	JGXU8ZESXZZ997KIEV6THMZEFXS3CCGI
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h15m47s.32
RA (top/left)	13h17m39s.60
RA (top/right)	13h14m00s.36
RA (bottom/right)	13h13m56s.38
RA (bottom/left)	13h17m33s.48

Dec (center)	+42°01′30″.4
Dec (top/left)	+42°14′16″.5
Dec (top/right)	+42°15′37″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+41°48′38″.5
Dec (bottom/left)	+41°47′17″.2

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M63 Sunflower galaxy

M63 Sunflower galaxy

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M63 Sunflower galaxy

M63 Sunflower galaxy

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