M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream (George Simon)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 63 · NGC 5055 · Sunflower Galaxy

M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream, George Simon

Powered byPixInsight

M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream

Powered byPixInsight

M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream

As I searched for a potential target for the upcoming New-Moon period, I found nothing but objects that either I had imaged relatively recently or were a poor fit for my gear. So, I decided instead to take advantage of the first available clear night to gather more data on M63, which I imaged last month. (See the image here.) I was curious to see whether a modest increase in integration time would allow me to pull out more of the extended halo and tidal streams that surround this showpiece galaxy, and indeed, it appears to have done so. Both the extended halo and the tidal streams are thought to be the result of a "recent" close encounter between M63 and one of its dwarf satellite galaxies.

Original
Final
B

B

Description: Reprocessed from scratch, using the latest alpha release of StarTools. The tweaked Spatially Variant Deconvolution module in this version allowed me to resolve more detail in the disk of the galaxy. By using a mask during gradient removal, I was able to pull out more of the halo/tidal stream surrounding the galaxy.

Uploaded: ...

Cloudy Nights

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7779317
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream

M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream

M63: Additional Data Reveals More Halo/Tidal Stream

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

Delete this revision?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information