Needle Galaxy

The Needle Galaxy, NGC 4565. It's about 43 million light years away.

 

I imaged this over 3 nights (5/1, 5/8, 5/12), and threw out one entire night of images. Total integration time is 6.5 hours. I had a difficult time processing this for some reason.

 

6.5 hours integration

 

Location: Southern Maryland, USA (Bortle 5-6)

Date: May 1st, May 12th

 

==Gear==

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

Imaging Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 61 II APO

Field Flattener: William Optics Flat 61A

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro

Guide Scope: ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM

 

==Acquisition==

Light Frames: 141x90" (3h 31' 30") (gain: 0.00) -10C bin 1x1, 180x60" (3h) (gain: 100.00) -10C bin 1x1

Dark Frames: 1 master frame (30 x 60s) -10C, 32 gain 0 -10C

Bias Frames: 0

Flat Frames: 32

Flat Darks: 32

 

==Stacking==

DSS stacked(Kappa sigma) 2x drizzled

Stacked to two different master fits for different exposures.

Two master fits stacked (average) for final image.

 

 

==Processing==

StarTools:

Autodev

Crop

Bin 73%

Wipe

HDR

Sharpen

Deconvolution

Color

Noise reduction

 

Affinity Photo:

Levels

Curves

Noise Reduction

 

Done