M106 and friends, HaGB composite

[windjammer]

Hi

Here is Galaxy Messier 106 and other galaxies. Pic is Ha, G, B composite - I found mapping Ha directly onto the R channel gave more interesting results than using the R exposures and futzing the Ha data afterwards.  The black hole driven Ha emission out of plane is quite visible.  

First pic is is a close up crop of M106, the second is the full field of view (about half a degree, 30 arc minutes, on a side).  Third pic is a close up star chart view of the companion and line of sight galaxies.

Barred Spiral Galaxy M106, NGC 4258.  (Distance: 23.7 million lyrs, Diameter: 135,000 lyrs, Angle subtended: 18.6x7.2 arcmin, Magnitude: 9.1, Constellation: Canes Venatici, The Hunting Dogs)

Other galaxies are also present - some of the brightest below, but there are others in the frame (very dim, better in the R frame):  
1. right, bottom of centre is galaxy NGC 4248 (distance 17.1 million lyrs, diameter 6,000 lyrs, 1.3x0.5 arcmin, Mg 12.5)
2. far right, bottom of centre are the galaxy pair NGC4232 (top, 333 Mlyrs,1.2x0.5 arcmin, Mg 13.2) and NGC 4231(bottom, 340 Mlyrs, 0.8x0.6 arcmin, Mg 13.6)
3. Top, far right (uncropped pic) is galaxy NGC 4226 (334 Mlyrs, 1.1x0.5 arcmin, Mg 13.5)
4. Centre, just above M106, is dwarf galaxy galaxy UGC 7356 (PGC 39615) visible as a faint blur (22 Mlyrs, 0.9x0.8 arcmin, Mg 15.1)

Details:

Photograph taken in Ha, R, G, B astronomik filters.  Total exposure time 11.8 hrs (8.3 w/out R).

R 1x1 bin - 42x300s = 3.5hrs, 28 May 2023, scope East side, prime focus
G 1x1 bin - 53x180s = 2.7hrs, 03 June 2023, scope East side, prime focus
B 1x1 bin - 73x180s = 3.7 hrs, 04 June 2023, scope East side, prime focus
Ha 1x1 bin - 23x300s = 1.9hrs, 05 June 2023, scope East side, prime focus

Rig:
Imaging scope: SW Startravel 150mm F5 Refractor, Baader Diamond Track, 2.5x Celestron Luminos 2inch imaging barlow, Atik 460EX mono

Guide scope: SW Evostar 90mm F10, with guiding XY stage, ZWO 120MM camera

Guiding: 2 stage PHD: high frequency guide scope (mount tracking) and low frequency OAG image train guiding (guidescope flex)

Mount: Home made German Equatorial pillow block mount, permanently rooftop mounted.  Spring loaded DEC axis gearing.

Other gadgets: ST4 based anti vibration shutter, ST4 based PEC

Processing:
PixInsight: Lights, Darks, Flats, Biases, Align Calibration, Linear fit, BXT, Channel Combination, SCNR(G). StarNet2 star removal/star layer
GradXpert: Gradient removal
Topaz DeNoise AI: Noise removal
Affinity Photo: 32 bit image processing (curves, high pass masking, selective colour)