Black Eye (M64)

Object Type: Spiral Galaxy
Scope: C-9.25"; Exposure 60 minutes.

The Black Eye Galaxy (Messier 64, NGC 4826), also called the Sleeping Beauty or Evil Eye Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy about 17 million light-years away in Coma Berenices. It is famous for the dramatic dark band of dust in front of its bright nucleus that gives it a 'black eye.' It was discovered by Edward Pigott in 1779 and independently by Bode and Messier soon after. Remarkably, the gas in its outer regions rotates in the opposite direction to the gas and stars in its inner region, a sign that M64 absorbed a smaller companion galaxy in the past.