Here we have a try at M61 that I was able to do over the last week or so during the darker lunar cycle.  The weather finally gave us a bit of a break here in Arizona and we had some great skies that actually coincided with the right part of the lunar cycle.

This is an interesting galaxy with an active galactic nucleus and a lot of star formation occurring.  It is about the same size as the Milky Way at about 100,000 ly in diameter and appears to have a lot of neutral hydrogen which is rather unique in the Virgo Cluster. 

My objective with this project was to try to go deep and also capture the star forming regions.  I had some success with this.  But would really have like to do more Lum integration because surprisingly, it seems there might be a tail coming off M61 extending from the galaxy and down between  NGC4292 and NGC4301.  

When I caught a hint of it I consulted with one of the most knowledgeable amateurs I know in Gary Imm about this.  I also looked at a bunch of other images of M61 and I did see the same hint of a tail in an image published by @Bart Delsaert of M61 which is simply a fantastic image done, I believe, under some very darks skies.

In any case, I added more Luminance to the project and that helped a bit but but of course, I cannot add more at this time because the galaxy no longer optimally positioned and the moon is on the wax.  But this is on my list to augment for next galaxy season...

I included a stretched inverted Luminance image to try to highlight the tail and I think one can make it out coming from the outer portions of the galaxy at about the 8 o'clock position and running counter-clockwise to about the 5 o'clock position and then downward in the frame.  Not sure if this exists or I just hope it does, lol...

In any case, I like the way this one came out, this is a very beautiful galaxy.

Comments and criticism always welcome and Clear Skies and Good health to you all...