M 64 - BLACK EYE GALAXY

Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices

 (RA  12.57,7/ dec +21:41)

 Collaboration with Guillermo Baldi AstroHobby and John Boyko

February 2010, La ALDEA Mountain House Complex in Merlo, San Luis, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Spiral Galaxy

Visual Brightness: 8.5

Apparent Diameter: 9.3 x 5.4 arc minutes

DISTANCE: 19 million lights years

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron SCT 8" working at roughly f5.2

CAMERA: SXVF H9

GUIDING: William Optics Zenithstar 66

IMAGE ACQUISITION: AstroArt 3.0 - Control Interface 3.72 plug in

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II - Atik Filter Wheel

SKY CONDITIONS: transparency and seeing: regular

EXPOSURES: LRGB (80,20,20,6). Synthetic Luminance combined with the G Channel (60+20)

PROCESSING: Calibration in Images Plus, CCD Sharp, Photoshop CS2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY John Boyko

SCOPE: Celestron 8" f6 for additional RGB riding on a Losmady G11

CAMERA: SXV H9

GUIDING: Televue 70mm f 6.5 and SXV Autoguider

EXPOSURES: LRGB (39,13,13,13,)  L (synthetic)

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

This is a remarkable bright Galaxy in the Constellation of Coma Berenices. It is an acceptable target even for the Southern enthusiast. M64 presents a peculiar pattern which is not repeated in Galaxies of its type. It has a tight arms structure with a soft texture that finally merges with the background. Its core shows enormous dust clouds associated with star formation and gives the appearance of a "black eye". The most intriguing feature of this galaxy is its non common rotation system. Recent observations showed that the center of the galaxy turns in the opposite way of the outer disk. It is believed that an ancient impact with another galaxy is the reason of this unusual effect

The image session was performed with my friend Guillermo Baldi during our vacations in the Mountains. We have to suspend it because some trees stood on the way while we were shooting the last blue channel. Fortunately John Boyko form the Starlight Xpress Group, provided the information to enhance the colors of the Galaxy. We also use them to blend and enhance the Luminance,  taking the advantage o the 1200 mm of the Newtonian Telescope. Thanks John !!