M64

Description

"The Black Eye Galaxy (also called Evil Eye Galaxy; designated Messier 64, M64, or NGC 4826) was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier in 1780. 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. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers because of its appearance in small telescopes. It is a spiral galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation."

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Meade LXD55

Camera: Canon T1i

Filters: None

Guiding: PHD

Processing: Photoshop, DSS, Fitswork

Capture software: BackYardEOS

Exposures: 122x120 ISO800

Location: Parsippany,NJ