Messier 63 - An early Sunflower floating in a sea of galaxies

[Laurin Dave]

The skies were clear as we left the pub quiz on Tuesday night so I turned the rig on the Sunflower galaxy and managed to capture 4hrs of Luminance on the Esprit150/SX46 and 1 hour each of RGB on the Esprit100/ASI1600 before the clouds rolled in.  Putting it all together in APP, Pixinsight and Photoshop reveals the fabulous Sunflower galaxy floating in a sea of hundreds and hundreds of distant galaxies.

Messier 63 the 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. In the mid-19th century, Anglo-Irish astronomer Lord Rosse identified spiral structures within the galaxy, making it one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified. 

This galaxy has a morphological classification of SAbc, indicating a spiral shape with no central bar feature and moderate to loosely wound arms. The distance to M63, is estimated between 16,000,000–34,000,000 light-years. The tip of the red-giant branch technique gives a distance of 29,000,000 light-years. M63 is part of the M51 Group, a group of galaxies that also includes M51 (the 'Whirlpool Galaxy').

I'm pretty happy with this given the integration time, will probably come back to it later in the spring for some more data.  I've included wide field and close up views. 

Thanks for looking

Dave

 

 

[ollypenrice]

Nice one Dave. The outer structure grows and grows as you add data.

Olly

[Laurin Dave]

14 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Nice one Dave. The outer structure grows and grows as you add data.

Olly

Thanks Olly..  yes I always look at yours, Barry and Steve's images to see what I should be looking for and could see the extensive halo and the integration times used.   I was pleasantly surprised at how much I'd got in only 4 UK hours as  90 minutes on it last year showed nothing of the halo, I guess all this rain has washed the skies clean.  I've just pushed the "Equalize" button in PS and it shows the arms extending out above and to the left and right of the galaxy (and a bunch of noise) so definitely on the to do list. 

Dave

 

[tooth_dr]

Class, the outer dust really is starting to show.

[tomato]

That’s a great result on 7 hrs total integration, as you say the sky has been very transparent lately, in between the rain.

 

[Laurin Dave]

12 minutes ago, tomato said:

That’s a great result on 7 hrs total integration, as you say the sky has been very transparent lately, in between the rain.

 

Thanks.. dual scopes help make the most of what little clear skies we are getting

[gorann]

A great image - dual Esprits on a Mesu should be waiting for everyone coming home from the pub on a clear night!

Edited February 22, 2020 by gorann

[Marvin Jenkins]

Just a beginner at the very beginning. I worked out that I was probably taking a single frame of the Sunflower at sometime in your marathon.

Now I know what it is supposed to look like after a lot of effort. Great image.

Marv

[Marvin Jenkins]

Hope I didn’t steal any of your photons.

[Laurin Dave]

1 minute ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Hope I didn’t steal any of your photons.

Plenty to go around 🙂..  dual scopes = photon Hoover! All the best for your astrophotography journey..  so much to learn and this is a great place for advice.