M63 The Sunflower Galaxy, Re-Process

[WolfieGlos]

After seeing some superb images of M63 recently, I decided I wanted to reprocess my version of M63 which I captured last year, but now using PI and the XT tools.

Using the same stack as previous, here is 12 hours captured with my DSLR throughout last May on 3 clear nights in a 5 days with no Moon, this scarcely seems believable nowadays!

I'm both impressed and surprised at just how much more detail, lack of noise and general image quality I have been able to get out of this one. I honestly thought that it was one of my best images to date.

Starfield 102 + 0.8 reducer + Canon 800D (modded) + HEQ5.

144x 300s lights at ISO-400. 6x darks, 50 bias, 40 flats.

Stacked in ASTAP, processed in PI, Starnet, Blur & Noise XT, and GIMP.

Comments welcome as always.

 

At the very top of the widefield view is this interesting looking object. According to Aladin, it is listed as "KISS F1316-4836", an emission-line galaxy. I can't find any other information on it though.