Sunflower Galaxy

"Messier 63 (M63, NGC 5055), nicknamed the Sunflower Galaxy, is a beautiful spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici.M63 was the very first discovery of a Deep Sky Object by Charles Messier's friend, Pierre Méchain, who caught it up on June 14, 1779. On the same day, Charles Messier included it in his catalog.The Sunflower galaxy M63 is one of the early recognized spiral galaxies, listed by Lord Rosse as one of 14 "spiral nebulae" discovered to 1850. It has been classified as of Hubble type Sb or Sc, displaying a patchy spiral pattern which can be traced well to the periphery of its only 6 arc seconds small smooth-textured central region."-SEDS.ORG


William Optics FLT110 f/7, SBIG ST2000XM with Astrodon I series LRGB filters
This is a luminance image. Did not have enough time to complete a color image.
Exposure: Luminance: 3 mins x 14 exposures
Dark frame and flat field processed by AIP4WIN
Final processing with PS CS2
Taken on 6/18/07 in Jackson, Ohio