A dusty-dark spiral galaxy with a bright-white core. Its spiral arms are dotted with bright-blue clusters of stars and reddish clouds. — Hubble · Messier 64 · NASA, CSA, ESA, F. Belfiore (European Southern Observatory – Germany), J. Lee (Space Telescope Science Institute), A. Leroy (The Ohio State University), and D. Thilker (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Black Eye Galaxy

Galaxy in Coma Berenices · 24 million light-years

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Type	Galaxy
Constellation	Coma Berenices
Right ascension	12h 56m 44s
Declination	+21° 41′
Object distance	24 million light-years
Apparent magnitude	8.5
Apparent size	10.5′ (arc-minutes)
Approx. true diameter	73,304 light-years across
Also known as	M64 · NGC 4826 · Evil Eye Galaxy

Messier 64, popularly known as the Black Eye Galaxy, is a galaxy (also catalogued as NGC 4826) in the constellation Coma Berenices — an island of billions of stars far beyond our own Milky Way. It was recorded by Charles Messier in his famous catalogue of 110 deep-sky objects. It spans roughly 10.5 arc-minutes on the sky. At about magnitude 8.5, it shows up well in a small backyard telescope.

Although it appears about 10.5′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 73,304 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.

Observing Black Eye Galaxy

Black Eye Galaxy lies in the constellation Coma Berenices and is best placed in the evening sky around April. Its maximum altitude above the horizon depends on your latitude. It is best placed for observers in the northern hemisphere, and sits low for those far south. A small backyard telescope will show it; binoculars may hint at it under dark skies. Note that the listed magnitude is spread across the whole object — diffuse galaxies and nebulae are often harder to see than the number alone suggests, so dark, moonless skies help a great deal.

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Sources

Position, magnitude and angular size from the OpenNGC catalogue (Mattia Verga).
Object identity cross-referenced with SIMBAD (CDS, Strasbourg).
Image credits and the original observation source are linked with each photograph.

Related objects

Andromeda Galaxy — galaxy
Triangulum Galaxy — galaxy
Whirlpool Galaxy — galaxy
Sombrero Galaxy — galaxy
Messier 110 — galaxy