Located about 16 million lightyears from Earth, M94 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici whose primary disk is about half the size of the Milky Way. Its outer disk makes this galaxy look like an eye, and is actually a structure of active spiral arms — not just a ring of dust.
It is sometimes called the “Cat’s Eye” or “Croc’s Eye” galaxy, but I like to call it the Croc’s Eye because to me it looks a bit menacing!
Check out the full frame photo on Astrobin: https://app.astrobin.com/i/6xfgz2
Total integration time: 142 subs x 300s = 11h 50m
Equipment:
- Telescope: William Optics Pleiades 111
- Main camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
- Mount: ZWO AM5N
- Accessories: ZWO EAF Pro
- Guidescope: Apertura 32mm
- Guide camera: ZWO ASI220MM Mini
Processing:
- Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
- RC Astro BlurXTerminator
- RC Astro NoiseXTerminator
- RC Astro StarXTerminator
- Adobe Photoshop 2026
by spidermanbyday