M63

Messier 63, nicknamed the Sunflower Galaxy, is a beautiful spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. M63 is one of the early recognized spiral galaxies, displaying a patchy spiral pattern which can be traced well to the periphery of its only 6 arc seconds small smooth-textured central region. Although 6 degrees south, it apparently forms a physical group with M51 and several smaller galaxies, which is about 37 million light years distant. The visual appearance resembles the photo: The spiral arms show up as a grainy background, which brightens slowly from outward and then rapidly to the nuclear region, which is still grainy. Star forming regions can be traced all along the spiral arms on color photos. Type I supernova 1971I occured on May 25, 1971, and reached mag 11.8.

Image taken April 6, 2009, with the ST-8 camera and the F:3.5 focal reducer. Exposure is 30 minutes, using T&A of 60 30-sec snapshots. The moon was almost full at the time and some of its glow still appears on the photograph, despite my attempts to eliminate it.