The amateur astronomer Axel Canicio, who is slowly becoming a regular to this blog, has once again submitted a magnificent deep sky image.

The image is of the Sunflower Galaxy (M63), which is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the Canes Venatici constellation. The Sunflower Galaxy is part of the M51 Group, a group of galaxies that also includes the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51).

The image was captured with The Imaging Source FireWire DMK 31AF03.AS astronomy camera (click for original):

In his e-mail to The Imaging Source, Axel specified the hardware and software that he used to capture this spectacular image:

C11 + F/3.3 Meade, Skywatcher EQ6 GOTO, Skywatcher ED80 for guiding. DMK 31AF03.AS to capture photo; DMK 21AU04.AS for guiding. 20 frames at 10 seconds; 20 frames at 30 seconds; 20 frames at 60 seconds; 20 frames at 120 seconds.

Again, we send out a great thanks to Axel for his contribution to The Imaging Source astronomy cameras community.

If you have any deep sky, planetary or indeed solar images that you would like to have published in this blog, please do not hesitate to contact us.