M 63 Sunflower Galaxy

Image Description: M63 lies at a distance of 27 million light years from our own Galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Its size is approximately 99,000 x 57, 000 light years.

To the lower left of the Galaxy there are horizontal dust lanes presumed to be not part of the disk, but lay in front of the Galaxy.

The spiral pattern is mostly fragmented indicating possible supernovas exploding in star formation regions.

Imaged over 5 nights using various combinations of angular rotation and guiding. The next time I image this Galaxy I will use a much longer focal length as this image is a tight crop of the original field of view.

Technical summary:

Captured: 14,15,19,20,21-03-2023

Imaging Sessions: 5

Location: Gérgal, Andalucía, Spain

Bortle Class: 4

Total Integration: 24h 55m

Filters:

Red 42x 300s 3h 00m BIN 2 Gain 100 -5C SQM 20.6

Green 43x 300s 3h 35m BIN 2 Gain 100 -5C SQM 20.5

Blue 43x 300s 3h 35m BIN 2 Gain 100 -5C SQM 20.6

UV/IR 171x 300s 14h 15m BIN 2 Gain 100 -5C SQM 20.6

Pixel Scale: 0.8 arcsec/pixel

Telescope: Celestron C11 Edge HD x0.7 f/7 @ 1960mm fl

Image Camera: ZWO ASI 6200MM Pro

Guiding: ZWO OAG L with ZWO ASI 192MM Mini

Filters: Astronomik R, G, B, UV/IR

Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro

Computer: Minix NUC

Capture software: NINA, PHD2

Processing Software: PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom

Copyright: Eric Smith