Some deep sky objects excel in brightness, others in delicacy. To me, the galaxy M94 excels in remoteness. M94 forms a nice trio with Alpha (Cor Caroli) and Beta CVN, the two stars that form the constellation Canes Venatici. A pair of binoculars can show this trio very nicely in the same field of view. While holding Alpha and Beta in your sights, try to look for an 8th magnitude star out of focus at 1 1/2° northeast of the midpoint between the Hunting Dogs. With direct vision, the galaxy looks like a small star point. Averted vision makes M94 to look like a swollen star. Various distances have been reported for M94. They range from 14 million light-years to 33 million light-years. M94 does look very remote when its distance is compared with the 110 light-years of Cor Caroli, doesn’t it?

Site : Butgenbach, Belgium
Date : May 5, 2008
Time : around 22.00UT
Binoculars : Bresser 8x56
FOV: 5.9°
Filter : none
Mount : Trico Machine Sky Window
Seeing : 2,5/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 6.0
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with Photo Paint, based on a raw pencil sketch.