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M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy in Canes Venatici
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Copyright 2005 Hap Griffin
M63 is a spiral galaxy discovered in 1850 by Lord Rosse. It is one of the
first galaxies recognized as a spiral.
M63 lies at a distance of 37 million light-years.
Date/Location:
April 9, 2005 Griffin/Hunter
Observatory Bethune, SC
Instrument: Canon 300D Digital SLR (modified) through f6.3
10" Meade LX-200
Focal Ratio: Approx. f4 using Lumicon GEG Focal Reducer
Guiding: Auto through Orion ED-80 w/ SBIG ST-237
Conditions: Visually clear
Weather: 48 deg. F
Exposure: 95 minutes total @ ISO 800 (19 x 5 min exposures) calibrated with flat frame
and Master Dark frame (average combine of 9 darks)
Filters: Baader UV/IR Block
Processing: Focused and captured with DSLRFocus.
RAW to TIFF conversion, frame calibrations, frame alignment and stacking, Digital Development,
Adaptive Richardson_Lucy deconvolution, scaling and JPEG conversion with ImagesPlus.
Noise reduction with
NeatImage.