The Black Eye Galaxy, Messier 64, a spiral galaxy located approximately 20 million light years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is approximately 13.28 billion years old and contains over 100 billion stars. It is recognizable by the dark dust band which gives it the appearance of a “Black Eye”. I imaged M64 with the Celestron 9.25” EdgeHD, with the 0.7x reducer at a focal length of 1,665 mm, and a focal ratio of f7. I captured 130 x 3 minute exposed light frames but stacked the best 100. I calibrated the lights with darks, and dark flats in Astro Pixel Processor and post processed the image in PixInSight. During the image capture I used gain 100 on the ZWO ASI2600mc-pro and didn’t use any filters. The 2600 has a built in IR cut filter to manage star bloat. I cooled the camera to -20 degrees Celsius.
Equipment:
Celestron 9.25” EdgeHD
Celestron 0.7x Reducer for EdgeHD scopes
Celestron CGEM DX mount
ZWO ASI2600mc-pro Imaging Camera
ZWO ASI224mc Guide Camera
Svbony 60mm Guidescope
ZWO ASIair Pro for image acquisition and gear control.
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