Location / Date

Zellerndorf, June 2015

Telescope / Mount / Guiding

ASA 10" Astrograph, ASA 2" Quattro Coma-Corrector (focal length: 1057mm, f4.1)
ASA DDM60, no Guiding

Camera / Exposure

FLI ML8300 with Astrodon filters
L 35x10min
R 10x10min, G 10x10min, B 10x10min

Total exposure time: 10h 50min

Processing

Theli, Fitswork, PixInsight, Photoshop

Notes

Messier 64 is a spiral galaxy located roughly 17 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy.

The interstellar medium of Messier 64 comprises two counter-rotating disks which are approximately equal in mass. The inner disk contains the prominent dust lanes of the galaxy. The stellar population of the galaxy exhibits no measurable counter-rotation. Possible formation scenarios include a merger with a gas-rich satellite galaxy in a retrograde orbit, or the continued accretion of gas clouds from the intergalactic medium.