M81 (Bode's Galaxy) and M82 (Cigar Galaxy) pair can be seen in center. What is seen as the brighter background throughout the frame is actually nebulae clouds known as the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN). IFN actually sits above our galactic plane and is illuminated by our galaxy as a whole, rather than emitting its own light. It is extremely faint and needs to be imaged under dark skies to be revealed.

Equipment:

OTA: William Optics GT81 w/0.8x reducer (382mm fl at f/4.7)

Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G (HEQ-5)

Guidescope: Orion 50mm guidescope

Guiding camera: Orion StarShoot Autoguider

Imaging camera: Canon t3i (unmodified)

Software:

BYEOS

PHD2

CdC

PixInsight

Acquisition:

Location: Atoka, Oklahoma (Bortle 3)

Dates: 1/23/17, 1/26/17, 1/30/17, 2/22/17, 3/2/17, 3/26/17

ISO800

128x480" lights

Total integration time: 17hr 4min

32x darks per night (temp-matched from dark library)

30x flats per night

200x bias (master bias in library)

"Original" Revision Processing:

Preprocessing:

Batch PreProcessing script to generate calibrated/registered images

ImageIntegration (Linear Fit rejection)

Dynamic Crop

ABE x3

Background Neutralization

Color Calibration

Extract L from RGB

RGB processing:

SCNR green

TGVDenoise (NR via Jon Rista's tutorial)

MMT (targeting chrominance and then luminance)

Histogram Transformation x3

HDRMT (M81 done separately from M82 and small objects)

Histogram Transformation (used range mask to push dark areas closer to the clipping point, leaving the IFN alone)

Curves Transformation (saturation)

Color Saturation (targeting specific galaxy colors)

Curves Transformation (slight contrast on entire image)

L processing:

Deconvolution

MMT (slight NR)

Histogram Transformation x3

Histogram Transformation x2 (with range mask to push non-IFN areas closer to clipping point)

HDRMT (M81 done separately from M82 and small objects)

LHE (stars masked off)

MorphologicalTransformation x2

Curves Transformation (slight contrast on entire image)

Combined L and RGB with LRGB Combination tool

Curves Transformation

MorphologicalTransformation (slightly reduce stars)

SCNR green