Object: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 May 24, 1971 and reached peak light around May 26.
Taken: May 31, 2020
Telescope: Astro-Tech 14” RC with Starizona Apex ED 0.65x reducer
Mount: Paramount ME II unguided
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC-Pro (cooled to -10C; Gain: 200/Offset 21) Bin 1×1.
Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Rotator: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Filters used: Luminousity on a ZWO 8 position filter wheel
Exposures: 26×120 seconds for a total exposure time of 0.9 hours; calibrated with 40 dark frames, 40 flat frames with 100 bias frames.
Seeing Conditions:
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop CC 2020. Image capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Comment: 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.