Messier 64 - The Black Eye Galaxy
Messier 64 is a Hubble-type SA(ab) spiral galaxy located at a distance of 18 million light-years in the constellation "Coma Berenices". It was discovered
in 1779 by Edward Pigott, while the naming "Black Eye Galaxy" goes back to a friend of F.W. Herschel. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 8.5mag
and an extent of 10.0'x5.4' (arcminutes).
With a diameter of 54,000 light-years, Messier 64 is only about half the size of our Milky Way. The absolute brightness is M= -20.0mag, which corresponds
to a luminosity of 10 billion suns. The most striking feature of the galaxy is a dark dust lane, which is also responsible for the naming. It has an extension
of 8,000 light-years and was probably formed a billion years ago in a collision of Messier 64 with a small, dust-rich galaxy. This assumption explains on
the one hand the unilateral extension of the dust cloud, and on the other hand the many star forming regions in this area. It is also remarkable that the gas in the
outer regions of the galaxy does not rotate in the same direction as the stars, but in the opposite direction.
In the center not only faint radio emissions (Seyfert 2) were found, but also a disk of gas and a supermassive black hole (SMBH) with a mass of 1.6 +- 0.4
million solar masses.
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When pointing a 20" telescope at this wonderful galaxy, the appearance of Messier 64 is very impressive and it takes your breath away for a short moment.
The halo is quite large and the dust lane appears to be punched out, curving around a bright nucleus containing an even brighter stellar nucleus. At a magnification
of 270x, the dust lane appeared slightly mottled to me, with no ability to pin down the structures. However, I repeatedly had the impression that the dust lane was
slightly brighter in the middle, splitting it in two. Also the halo was not quite uniform in brightness. But I could only suggest that.
For me one of the best and most beautiful galaxies in the spring sky and always worth a visit - no matter with which aperture!
