Messier 63 – The Sunflower Galaxy

📊 Capture Details

• Target: M63 – The Sunflower Galaxy
• Location: West of Kissimmee Prairie Star Preserve, Florida
• Sky Quality: Bortle 2–3
• Integration Time: 13 hours total (8h Luminance, 5h RGB)
• Telescope: CarbonStar Ricthy (1377mm focal length)
• Camera: QHY 533M Monochrome
• Filters: Baader LRGB set
• Mount: Sky-Watcher 150i
• Processing: PixInsight (full processing) + Photoshop (final color and background adjustments)
• Notes: Two versions produced (with and without sRGB color profile). Faint tidal streams captured.

Last weekend, I had two clear nights under exceptional skies — Bortle 2–3 just west of Kissimmee Prairie Star Preserve. I took the opportunity to make my first attempt at imaging M63, the Sunflower Galaxy — a striking flocculent spiral galaxy located about 27 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici.

M63 is famous for its loosely wound, patchy arms that give it a textured, sunflower-like appearance. Unlike tightly wound spirals like M51, M63’s beauty comes from its rich, layered structure — and that made it an exciting challenge to capture.

Over two nights, I gathered a total of 13 hours of integration time:

• 8 hours of luminance

• 5 hours of RGB

Gear used:

• CarbonStar Ricthy at 1377mm

• QHY 533M monochrome camera

• Baader LRGB filters

The final image reveals some fine structure in the galaxy's core, with intricate dust lanes weaving through the spiral arms. The faint outer halo is also visible, and if you look carefully, you can spot the beginnings of M63’s elusive stellar tidal stream — remnants of ancient interactions with smaller galaxies. Pulling out those faint features took long exposure time, careful calibration, and good dark-sky conditions.

I ended up producing two versions of the final image: one saved with an sRGB color profile and one without. I'm curious to see if there's any visible difference depending on what device or browser you're using to view it.

For a first shot at M63, I’m really pleased with the result. There's still room to push deeper, but it's exciting to see how much detail can be captured when conditions, equipment, and processing all come together.

Looking forward to refining the process even more as galaxy season continues!