M64 = NGC4826 ( 12h 56.7m +21°41´, 8.5 mag. )

Black Eye Galaxy in Coma Berenices was discovered by Bode in April 1779 and Messier observed it on March 1, 1780. This peculiar galaxy contains gigantic dust cloud disrupting its otherwise smooth, tight spiral structure. M64 is located about 13.5 million ly away and can be found with binoculars about 5°15' NW of a Comae (see finder chart below) - or one third of the distance toward g Comae.

The above image was taken on May 9, 1999 from Sooke, BC. Cookbook 245 LDC CCD camera was used on Celestron Ultima 8 f6.3 telescope autoguided with Cookbook 211 LDC CCD camera on a piggybacked 500mm f8 telephoto lens. It is composed of white exposures (8 x 240 sec.) as well as cyan, magenta and yellow-filtered integrations CMY (4 x 240 sec. each) combined with AIP4WIN. Color image was then further adjusted in Lab color space using Corel PhotoPaint 8.

North is to the right.

Map created in Guide 7.0 - 7°45' x 7°45'. North is up.

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© Jan Wisniewski