The Sunflower Galaxy, M 63, is a so-called flocculent spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici (hunting dogs). It is about 29 million lightyears away and belongs to the M 51 galaxy group, named after the brightest galaxy in the pack. Although it is a spiral galaxy, there is are continuous spiral arms evident in visible light, because of the fragmented flakey structure. In addition there are clear dust lanes and pink emission nebulae visible.
This is an RGB image with a total of 12 hours of exposure time, taken with our Planewave CDK17 at the TURMX observatory. The three color channels have about the same total exposure time and we did not use separate luminance exposure in this case. Check out the full-screen view by clicking on the image.
| Telescope | Planewave CDK17, D=430mm, f=2940 mm |
| Camera | QHY600M Full Frame CMOS, 9-Slot Filter Wheel with Baader Filters |
| Exposures | 12 hours total, RGB 120,120,120 x 120sec, BIN 2×2 |
| Data taken | 27 May – 1 June 2022 |
| Site | TURMX @ E-EyE Observatory, Extremadura |
| Processing | Robert Roth, 3 June 2022 |