Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  Black-eye galaxy  ·  M 64  ·  NGC 4826
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M64 - The Black Eye Galaxy, Rowland Archer
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M64 - The Black Eye Galaxy

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M64 - The Black Eye Galaxy, Rowland Archer
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M64 - The Black Eye Galaxy

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Description

Here's my M64, the Black Eye Galaxy, 34 hours of data acquired between Feb 24 and Mar 18, 2019 over seven nights from my 19.5 SQM yard in Wake Forest, NC. Gear was the Esprit 120 refractor, iOptron CEM60 mount, ASI1600MM-Cool camera with ZWO LRGB and Ha filters.

I took several runs at this data - processing it three times, getting a little more detail in the galaxy core with each attempt. One try gave me better color, another try gave better detail, so I pulled the luminance from the detailed version and combined it with the one whose color I preferred.

Although we all know processing is important, it was a very interesting lesson on how radically different the outcome can be with different processing steps. I wouldn't say either was right or wrong - they just ended up emphasizing different elements of the data.

With my current setup, acquisition is highly automated using Voyager, so processing is where I spend 90% of my time.

Comments & critique always welcome.

Cheers,

Rowland

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M64 - The Black Eye Galaxy, Rowland Archer