M81 (NGC 3031) Bode's Galaxy

M81 is a grand design spiral galaxy in Ursa Major about 11. 8 million light years away.

 

Data Acquisition by Vasudevan S. Jagannathan.

Date: 14, 15, 20 December 2023; 5, 8, 11, 12 January 2024.

Location: Washington DC.

Total exposure time: 25.55 hours.

(L: 7.175 hours / R: 4.842 hours / G: 4.375 hours / B: 9.158 hours).

ASI 2600MM Pro camera.

Baader 2" CMOS Optimized LRGB Filter Set.

WO Fluorostar 91mm f/5.9 triplet APO refractor.

iOptron GEM28-EC mount.

 

Processed completely in PixInsight as follows:

Created L, R, G and B masters.

Created an RGB image using LRGB combination.

Applied Dynamic Background Extractor (DBE), Background Neutralization and Color Calibration.

Used Blur Xterminator and Noise Xterminator.

Applied a Histogram Transformation to create a stretched RGB image.

Created an L image using LRGB Combination.

Applied the same DBE as for the RGB image.

Used Blur Xterminator, Noise Xterminator and a Histogram Transformation to create a stretched L image.

Applied HDR Multiscale Transform (HDR MT) with same parameters to both the RGB and L stretched images.

Used LRGB Combination to apply the HDR MT-stretched L image onto the HDR MT-stretched RGB image.

Used Star Xterminator to split the above-resulting image into starless and stars only images.

Applied Local Histogram Equalization and Curves Transform on the starless image.

Rejoined the processed starless image and the stars only images with Pixel Math.

Applied Topaz's Denoise AI and Gigapixel AI to the rejoined image for further noise reduction and clarity to get a final result.

Done