M63 in the constellation of Canes Venatici (the hunting dogs) is a magnitude 8.6 spiral galaxy that lies somewhat northwest of the brightest star Cor Caroli. It makes an isosceles triangle with this star and beta Cvn (Chara). I have observed this galaxy before back in 2021 when I used my 4 inch refractor to take some images. This time I wanted to have a go with my Dwarf 3 smartscope. Since the beginning of April we have had a good run of dry sunny weather and two and a half weeks ago, on the 7th April 2026, I obtained this image of the galaxy:-
The image is based on 383x15s (1 hour 35.75 minutes) of observation. The first frame was taken at 21:31 BST and the last at 23:33. Midpoint 22:32 BST. During the exposures the gain was set to 60 and the astro filter was used. Subsequently, the image was processed in Stellar Studio with auto settings. Finally, the saturation and sharpening have been increased in Photoshop and the final image binned x2 (click on the image to see the full-sized version). At this time the moon was 3 days until last quarter and wouldn't rise until 02:26 BST on the 8th.
M63 is a fairly large (12x8 arc minutes) object and contains lots of tightly wound spiral arms. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-
Some of the detail in the centre of the galaxy has been lost due to over exposure but an idea of the tight spiral arms in the lower part of the galaxy can be seen.
All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026
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