The Black Eye Galaxy, also cataloged as Messier 64 and NGC 4826, is a barred spiral galaxy famous for the dark, dusty lane sweeping across its bright core that gives it its evocative name. With an apparent magnitude of 8.52 and a surface brightness of about 21.7 mag/arcsec², it is a rewarding target that shows off its signature dust band even in modest apertures under dark skies. Spanning roughly 11′ × 6.2′ across the sky, it fits comfortably within the field of most deep-sky imaging setups while remaining large enough to reveal fine structure at longer focal lengths. Long integration times paired with a good color camera or filters bring out the reddish-brown dust arc against the galaxy’s smooth, glowing disk, making it one of the more photogenic galaxies of springtime.
Names and Catalog numbers
- Black Eye Galaxy
- M 64 (Messier 64)
- NGC 4826
- UGC 8062
- PGC 44182
Position and the cosmic neighborhood
The Black Eye Galaxy sits in Coma Berenices at a right ascension of 12h 56m 43.7s and a declination of +21° 40′ 58″, a region rich in galaxies that lies toward the northern reaches of the spring sky. This part of the heavens hosts the Coma star cluster and points toward the vast Virgo and Coma galaxy fields, so an imaging session here often captures faint background galaxies scattered across the frame. Because Messier 64 climbs high for northern observers, it is well placed for extended, low-airmass exposures that maximize signal on its delicate dust structure.
Nice to Know
- Its nickname comes from the striking dark dust lane arcing across the bright nucleus, which resembles a black eye and is the galaxy’s defining photographic feature.
- At roughly 13.4 million light-years away, it is a relatively nearby galaxy, so imagers can resolve surprising detail in its disk and dust band.
- With a physical diameter of about 42,800 light-years, it is a comparatively compact spiral that still fills a satisfying portion of a telescopic field.
- Carrying multiple designations — Messier 64, NGC 4826, PGC 44182 and UGC 8062 — it is one of the most well-documented and frequently imaged galaxies in Coma Berenices.
Brightness, distance and size
The object has an apparent magnitude of 8.5 mag, it lies about 13.4 million light-years from Earth and spans roughly 42,800 light-years across. On the sky it appears about 11′ × 6.2′ in size.
