M63 Sunflower Galaxy HaRGB 11-Apr-24 v2

Target: M63 Sunflower Galaxy

The Sunflower is a spiral galaxy in the Canes Venatici constellation appoximately 30 million LY distant.

It is estimated to contain 400 billion stars

 

Gear:

Mount: ZWO AM5

Main Cam: ZWO ASI294MC Pro @ gain 121 and 14F

Guide Cam: ZWO ASI120MM Mini with ZWO 30mm f/4 scope

Telescope: Askar 103APO w/ 1.0x flattener - 700mm f/6.8

Filter: Baader Moon and Skyglow Broadband light pollution

Filter: Antlia ALP-T Dual Narrowband 5nm Ha and Oiii

 

Acquisition:

Light frames: Broadband - 120 2 minute subs for 4:00 integration

Light frames: Ha - 30 5 minute subs for 2:30 integration

Sessions: 11-Apr-2024

Moon: Not a factor

Location: Houston Suburb backyard Bortle 8

 

 

Processing

• Register the NB and BB masters

• Split channels of NB - keep only the red - relabel Ha

• Dynamic Crop

• Image Solver, SPCC

• GraxPert, BTX, NTX

• Stretch Ha using STF > HT, curves and HT to highlight Ha signal

• Stretch RGB using Generalized Hypobolic Stretch, curves for contrast

• Bill Blanshan's Pixel Math tools to add Ha to RGB

• StarXterminator on resulting HaRGB image

• Curves on both

• Take starless to Photoshop ACR contrast, hightlights, black level

• Screen stars onto starless

• Copy screen stars layer / add black mask / reveal random "closer stars"

• Final crop, watermark

Done