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M63 stellar arch
David Cruz · Astromidnight
In Canes Venatici, the Sunflower Galaxy, M63, 27 million light-years away. Around it, a faint arc of stars is all that remains of a small galaxy it tore apart.
| Catalogue | Messier, 1781 · NGC 5055 |
| Type | Flocculent spiral galaxy |
| Distance | ≈ 27 million light-years |
| Field | 75.4′ × 50.4′ |
| Scale | 0.52″ / pixel |
| Orientation | −2° · north up |
| RA (centre) | 13h 15m 50s |
| DEC (centre) | +42° 01′ 43″ |
| Constellation | Canes Venatici |
| Objects in field | M63 · tidal stream · 3 satellites · UGC 8365 · 1 quasar |
Distance of M63 from NASA (Hubble's Messier catalogue); the ELVES survey (Carlsten et al. 2022) uses 8.87 Mpc, about 29 million light-years. The satellites are those confirmed by ELVES. The distance of UGC 8365 was calculated from redshift (SIMBAD), with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc, and the light travel time of the quasar with H0 = 70 and Ωm = 0.3. No real width: the field brings together M63 and much more distant galaxies and a quasar. The position of the arc of stars was measured by us on the image and is approximate; the rest come from AstroBin labels or SIMBAD coordinates.
20 h 00 min of light
Each tick is a 240-second exposure. 300 in total. Calibrated with 50 darks, 50 flats and 50 bias. The Moon stayed below 25 % illumination throughout.
Carbon Newton 10' f/4
ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Sky-Watcher CQ350 Pro
Askar M54 OAG · ZWO ASI120MM Mini
TS-Optics NEWTON Coma Corrector 1.0x (TSGPU)
Adobe Photoshop · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)
São Pedro da Gafanhoeira, Évora · 358 m
Bortle 3