When you look at M64 in a telescope, it looks like a white eye in the black cosmos. But on film negatives,  the way film astrophotographers saw such things, it looked like a black eye in white or clear background. So naturally they named it the Black Eye galaxy. Click on the picture here to see the negative view. One theory about the unique look of M64 is that another galaxy several billion years ago crashed through and near the center of this galaxy. What we may be seeing in the swirls of the surrounding material are the ripples emanating from the central black hole rebounding from it's displacement. Another theory comes from observations that the material in the inner part of the eye, about 3,000 light years radius, is rubbing along the inner edge of the outer disk, which rotates in the opposite direction, and extends up to at least 40,000 light years The dark border around the central eye is the boundary between these counter rotating systems. This phenomenon has led to speculation that the outer material is the accretion disk of a captured companion galaxy.

The distance to M64 is not well established, that the distance is not yet better known is a bit strange, but the estimated 14-20 million light years still makes it one of the closer galaxies to ours. At its presumed distance it would be gravitationally linked to M94 and a number of smaller galaxies in the region. Although it is just a bit above the many Virgo cluster galaxies following Leo, it is a long way from that much more distant (60 million years) group.

10" F6.3 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope, (1600mm F.L.) Modified Canon 300D camera with IR-UV filter, placed at the scopes prime focus
400 sec exposure, ISO 800
8 photos (each at the above settings) averaged together and then adjusted for color and contrast