Telescopes And More

In the Astronomical Sketches series on here that my brother provides, here is M64. Coma Berenices is a constellation that contains a great many galaxies that are easily observable with modest amateur telescopes. One of the greatest treasures in the constellation is the Black-eye Galaxy or M64. It is the 64th object on a list compiled by French comet hunter Charles Messier, hence its “name “! This galaxy is noted for a fairly prominent dust band that is visible in telescopes of 6″ aperture or more on a dark night. This particular observation was made with an 8″ Dobsonian telescope with a magnification of 203X and the “Black-eye” dust band is clearly visible. M64 is located some 18 million light years from Earth!