In addition to Bodes Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy there are dozens of minor galaxies in this field of view. Many small galaxies including spirals, both face on and edge on, a curious galaxy in the bottom left corner. I had a lot of fun looking at it close.

There is about 20 hours of luminance in this image. This was barely enough to really bring out the IFN in the background of the image (foreground really from a galactic point of view). Here is the details (all are at gain 0):

220 x Luminance @ 1 minute (3.7 hours)

78 x Luminance @ 5 minutes (6.5 hours)

30 x Blue @ 2 minutes (1 hour)

36 x Blue @ 5 minutes (3 hour)

27 x Green @ 2 minutes (0.9 hour)

30 x Green @ 5 minutes (2.5 hour)

27 x Red @ 2 minutes (0.9 hour)

29 x Red @ 5 minutes (2.4 hour)

This was processed in the following way. The first batch (of 1 and 2 min exposures for lum and color) was processed first. This did not provide sufficient signal for IFN so I added two additional nights of imaging to acquire the 5 minute exposures which I found at gain 0 to actually not be overexposed and then processed this separately.

The images for each channel then were combined using PixelMath in PixInsight to a ratio based on exposure time. For example if the new data had 3 hours for a color channel, and the older data had 1 hour I want 75% of the new data and 25% of the old data. I used an expression like this: $T*RA+(O*(1-RA)) where RA is defined as a variable equal to this ratio (Assuming the old data were identified by 'O'). I then applied this to the new data, to see what I was doing however I also needed to do an automatic background extraction on each image and I used LinearFit to equalize the values using the brighter image as the target. This allows me to see before and after views better as otherwise I needed to reapply the auto-stretch and seeing if my change was reducing noise and improving signal was difficult to tell.

Once I had a single image for each of L, R, G, and B I processed the RGB in the following way:

1. ChanelCombination to merge together, after this the image had a strong blue cast.

2. AutomaticBackgroundExtractor to remove the weird color cast

3. Create previews for background sample, and the main part with the two galaxies.

4. Using the background sample I applied BackgroundNeutralization and ColorCalibration.

5. Apply PhotometricColorCalibration

6. Applied a stretched luminance mask to the RGB image protecting the galaxy and used MultiScaleLinearTransform to apply noise reduction.

7. Invert mask to protect background and used CurvesTransformation to boost the Saturation of just the galaxies and stars.

8. Removed mask and STF Auto-stretch and applied a HistogramTransformation to stretch the image.

After the basic RGB processing was complete I did the following on the Luminance

1. I extracted the CIE L* component from the RGB image before I did most of the processing mentioned above to create a synthetic luminance. I calculated the overall exposure of both the combined Luminance (from the 1 min and 5 min exposures) and all of the color channels combined and merged the luminance with the synthetic luminance similarly to what was described above using pixel math and a ratio based on exposure time. It occurred to me later however that the R, G, and B filters block 2/3rds of the light so I probably should have compensated for that but I did not.

2. Once I had the final Luminance image I used the excellent Deconvolution instructions here https://pixinsight.com/examples/M81M82/ I used the DynamicPSF tool to create a PSF, created a deconvolution support image, and applied Deconvolution to image.

3. Apply stretch luminance mask (inverted) to protect highlights and used MultiScaleLinearTransform to apply noise reduction to background (carefully so as not to overdo it).

4. Update mask to remove invert so background is protected and apply a light UnsharpMask

5. Duplicate the image and use MaskedStretch (which kind of overdoes it but very effectively pulls out the IFN).

6. On the original image use HistogramTransformation to stretch to roughly the same brightness level as the copy.

7. Adjust both slightly with CurvesTransformation to bring out background but keep stars and galaxy from being overexposed.

8. Use PixelMath to merge the images at an aesthetically pleasing ratio.

Creating the LRGB and final Processing

1. I used the LRGBCombine tool selecting the luminance, uncheck the color channels and drag to RGB image to apply luminance to the color image.

2. I used the curves tool, played around with masks and applied a final TVGNoise reduction to the background with some customized settings to keep the NR to a minimal level.

3. Saved the image as xisf but also as as 16 bit integer based tiff file.

4. Open the tiff file in Photoshop for final processing.

5. Save image and save as jpg for upload.