After setting up my remote observatory at GMARS, Landers, CA, my second target became M63.I aimed to capture the intricate details of the galactic spiral arm, dark lane, and hydrogen-alpha nebulosity, focusing particularly on the vivid dust shell and its ring-shaped extension.
Over 16 nights in April and early May, I gathered 104 hours of data.
However, after using the Subframe Selector in PixInsight to discard frames affected by poor seeing and guiding errors, I ended up with 74 hours of usable data.
When the moon lit up the sky in mid-April, I focused on capturing the Hydrogen alpha channel.Interestingly, I ended up gathering a substantial amount of data in Hydrogen alpha, which revealed vivid details of the H-alpha nebulosity.
However, blending the intensely bright H-alpha data compromised the color balance in my RGB image, prompting me to reduce the blending factor. Instead, I am posting a separate H-alpha image for the record.While post-processing, I was surprised to learn that there are many tiny galaxies in the background that I hadn't noticed before. They are faint and small, yet it's still possible to discern their shapes: irregular, elliptical, or spiral.
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