The Black Eye Galaxy is renowned for its dramatic dark dust lane that partially obscures its bright nucleus, creating a distinctive “black eye” appearance that makes it a favorite target for astrophotographers. This galaxy features an unusual counter-rotation between its inner and outer regions, likely caused by a past galactic merger. Its relatively bright magnitude and distinctive features make it accessible to amateur imagers with moderate equipment. The contrast between the bright core and dark dust lanes provides excellent opportunities for creating visually striking astrophotos.
Names and Catalog numbers
- Black Eye Galaxy (trivial name)
- Evil Eye Galaxy (trivial name)
- Sleeping Beauty Galaxy (trivial name)
- Messier 64
- NGC 4826
- PGC 44182
- UGC 8062
Position and the cosmic neighborhood
The Black Eye Galaxy is located in the constellation Coma Berenices, near several other notable deep-sky objects including the globular cluster M53. It lies within the M94 Group of galaxies, a small collection within the larger Virgo Supercluster. This region of the sky offers rich opportunities for wide-field astrophotography, with numerous galaxies visible in the same field of view.
Nice to Know
- The galaxy’s distinctive dark lane is actually a complex region of dust clouds that create the “black eye” effect in images.
- M64 contains two counter-rotating systems of stars and gas, a rare feature likely resulting from a galactic merger.
- Despite its distance, the galaxy’s bright core makes it visible in modest telescopes under dark skies.
- The interaction between counter-rotating gases creates active star-forming regions along their collision boundaries.
Brightness, distance and size
The Black Eye Galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 8.5 to 9.8, making it one of the brighter spiral galaxies for amateur observation, located approximately 24 million light-years from Earth. It spans about 51,000 light-years across, appearing as a 9 × 5 arcminute oval in the night sky, with its most photogenic features requiring longer exposures to reveal fully.
