Sunflower (M63)

Object Type: Spiral Galaxy
Scope: Orion 10" Newtonian; Exposure 120 minutes.

The Sunflower Galaxy (Messier 63, NGC 5055) is a spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici whose disk is covered in many short, patchy spiral-arm segments, a pattern astronomers call a 'flocculent' spiral, resembling the seed head of a sunflower. It lies roughly 29 million light-years away and is a member of the M51 Group, along with the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51).