Sunflower galaxy

[alan4908]

An LRGB image of the Sunflower galaxy. The image was taken with my SW Esprit 150 and SX Trius 814 camera and represents just over 10 hours integration time.

I gave the very bright stars near the galaxy a very modest stretch and then blended this result with the result of the more highly stretched galaxy image. This approach generated some star colour and also reduced their distraction effect, in addition, it also allowed some faint nebulosity that surrounds the galaxy to be displayed.

The image was processed with my normal workflow which uses three software packages:

• CCDstack: calibration, stacking & error rejection, Lum deconvolution and DDP stretch, RGB combination
• Photoshop: mask generation(s), High Pass Filter, colour enhancements, noise reduction
• Pixinsight: gradient reduction (DBE), Photometric colour calibration, green reduction (SCNR), noise reduction (TGVDenoise), sharpening (MLT).

The image was previously posted in the Deep Sky imaging section.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:11, R:19, G:15. B:17 x 600s, DARKS:30, FLATS:40, BIAS:100 all at -20C.

 

[Galen Gilmore]

Stunning detail and depth in the image! feels as if I could reach out and grab it.

[alan4908]

13 hours ago, Galen Gilmore said:

Stunning detail and depth in the image! feels as if I could reach out and grab it.

Thanks Galen ! 

Alan