M 63 Deep sky · Galaxy in Canes Venatici · M 63 · NGC 5055
Sunflower Galaxy
The Sunflower Galaxy: a spiral whose arms are patchy and broken, like the seeds in a flower head rather than long sweeping curves.
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- Type
- Galaxy
- Designations
- M 63 · NGC 5055
- Constellation
- Canes Venatici
- Apparent magnitude
- 8.6
- Apparent size
- 13′ × 7′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 13h 16m · Dec +42° 02′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 2.5 times as wide. The Sun comes no nearer to it than 45°, around mid September, so it is never lost in the Sun’s glare, which reaches about 15° out.
When to see it
On the night of Thu 8 Apr 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT+1 | Never sets | 01:09 · 80° | — |
| New York EDT | 15:43 | 01:04 · 89° | 10:24 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:10 | 01:14 · 49° | 07:18 |
| Sydney GMT+10 | 20:34 | 00:05 · 14° | 03:37 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes, on any clear night of the year — it is circumpolar from there and never quite sets, though at its lowest it skims the horizon, where trees and haze will hide it.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 13° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around early April, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by early July it is highest in the early evening, and in early January not until the hours before dawn.
- How bright is it?
- Magnitude 8.6 in total, but that light is spread over 13′ × 7′ of sky: on average 22.1 magnitudes per square arcsecond. Against a dark country sky that average stands out; a city’s glow drowns all but its brightest parts.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- Binoculars. At magnitude 8.6 it is past the eye, but a 50 mm pair under a dark sky reaches about magnitude 11.0.
Look for
It lies in Canes Venatici, between Cor Caroli and the end of the Big Dipper’s handle. A small telescope shows an oval glow.
Science
It belongs to the same small group of galaxies as the Whirlpool.
Look for
From 50° north it is circumpolar and never sets; from 35° north it climbs to 83°; from the equator it climbs to 48°; from 35° south it climbs to 13°.
Look for
Magnitude 8.6 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (4.1 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (1.6 short); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (2.4 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (3.9 to spare). Those limits are for a point of light; its light is spread over its whole size, so it needs some of that margin in hand. Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 3% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 21% of the field’s width.