The Sunflower Galaxy was discovered by Pierre Mechain on June 14, 1779. Lying at a distance of about 37 million light years, this galaxy is a member of a physical grouping with the Whirlpool Galaxy M51 and a number of other smaller galaxies. Also known as NGC 5055, M63 has a visual magnitude of 8.6, surface brightness of 13.6, and an apparent size of 13.5' x 8.3'. A large, conspicuous dark lane can be seen cutting across the faint extensions of the spiral arms from the 6 to 8 o'clock position relative to the nucleus. Numerous tightly coiled arms with a wealth of detail in their dust lanes and HII areas make this object a particularly favorite target of astro-imagers. Also in the field of view is the very faint irregular galaxy UGCA 342 at a surface brightness of 14.7, visible just below the bright star at the far right center of the image. The faint glow of UGCA 342 is elongated in a right-left direction (94° PA), subtending an arc of about 1.6' x 0.6'.

This image was the result of a collaborative effort between Dave Jurasevich and David Held, sharing data acquisition and processing tasks.