M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

[CKemu]

TECHNICAL: R 20x480s | G 20x480s | B 20x480s | Artificial Flat Frame | ATIK414ex, Baader RGB filters, ASI120mm guiding though PHD2 | Meade LX90 8" SCT reduced to f/6.3

Recently moved to a small beach/hamlet near Looe in Cornwall, and despite a street lamp being 15m away from my imaging spot, the skies here are significantly dark than any where else I have lived, so thought I'd try them out with a galaxy broadband image. Needless to say, I am looking forward to more clear nights!

I tried making flat frames via the dusk light method, and no matter how little or much exposure I gave the image, DSS made the edges glow and the image extra noisy, not sure what I am doing wrong, so used the artificial flat frame method, which works well enough, just a bit more time consuming.

I haven't imaged galaxies regularly, indeed, this is my fourth attempt at such an object and I need more practice, I got more data, indeed got 30xchannel in the end, but somehow couldn't get back to this colour balance and detail, so kept the smaller data set version.

Anyhow, thanks for looking, really do love galaxies!