{"id":602,"date":"2026-07-05T20:45:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T20:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/?page_id=602"},"modified":"2026-07-05T20:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T20:45:04","slug":"m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/","title":{"rendered":"M94 – The Croc’s Eye Galaxy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Messier 94 (M94), also cataloged as NGC 4736, is a striking spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. Although often classified as a spiral galaxy, M94 is unique because it contains multiple ring-like structures surrounding an exceptionally bright nucleus. These rings are rich in young, hot stars and active regions of star formation, giving the galaxy a distinctive appearance that has earned it the nickname “The Croc’s Eye Galaxy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most fascinating characteristics of M94 is its enormous, faint outer stellar disk. For many years astronomers believed the galaxy ended just beyond the bright inner ring. Modern deep imaging has revealed that the outer disk extends far beyond the visible spiral arms, nearly doubling the galaxy’s apparent size. Capturing this faint halo requires many hours of integration and careful image processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This image represents 60.7 hours of exposure collected over 756 individual images between December 7, 2025 and January 26, 2026. Luminance, RGB, and Hydrogen-alpha data were combined to reveal both the fine dust lanes surrounding the brilliant nucleus and the numerous star-forming regions scattered throughout the spiral arms. The hydrogen-alpha data highlights glowing clouds of ionized hydrogen where new stars are actively being born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image also contains numerous background galaxies lying hundreds of millions of light-years beyond M94, serving as a reminder that every small fuzzy object in the field is an entire galaxy containing billions of stars. This image was acquired from the “Murph ‘N Griff” observatory in Arnold CA. from December 2025 through January 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Messier 94 (M94), also cataloged as NGC 4736, is a striking spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. Although often classified as a spiral galaxy, M94 is unique because it contains multiple ring-like structures surrounding an exceptionally bright nucleus. These rings are rich in young, hot stars and active regions of star formation, giving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-602","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nM94 - The Croc's Eye Galaxy - William D Brown Astrophotography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"M94 - The Croc's Eye Galaxy - William D Brown Astrophotography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Messier 94 (M94), also cataloged as NGC 4736, is a striking spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. Although often classified as a spiral galaxy, M94 is unique because it contains multiple ring-like structures surrounding an exceptionally bright nucleus. These rings are rich in young, hot stars and active regions of star formation, giving […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"William D Brown Astrophotography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-05T20:45:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1829&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1829\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/\",\"name\":\"M94 - The Croc's Eye Galaxy - William D Brown Astrophotography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C731&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-05T20:45:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-05T20:45:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C731&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C731&ssl=1\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cosmosimager.com\\\/staging\\\/3153\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"M94 – The Croc’s Eye Galaxy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\\\/\",\"name\":\"William D Brown Astrophotography\",\"description\":\"Astrophotography Images of Deep Sky Objects\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"M94 - The Croc's Eye Galaxy - William D Brown Astrophotography","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"M94 - The Croc's Eye Galaxy - William D Brown Astrophotography","og_description":"Messier 94 (M94), also cataloged as NGC 4736, is a striking spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. Although often classified as a spiral galaxy, M94 is unique because it contains multiple ring-like structures surrounding an exceptionally bright nucleus. These rings are rich in young, hot stars and active regions of star formation, giving […]","og_url":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/","og_site_name":"William D Brown Astrophotography","article_modified_time":"2026-07-05T20:45:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1829,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1829&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/","url":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/","name":"M94 - The Croc's Eye Galaxy - William D Brown Astrophotography","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C731&ssl=1","datePublished":"2026-07-05T20:45:03+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-05T20:45:04+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C731&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/M94_A-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C731&ssl=1"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/m94-the-crocs-eye-galaxy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"M94 – The Croc’s Eye Galaxy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\/#website","url":"http:\/\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\/","name":"William D Brown Astrophotography","description":"Astrophotography Images of Deep Sky Objects","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/yas.coo.mybluehost.me\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":604,"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/602\/revisions\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmosimager.com\/staging\/3153\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}