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

Image of the day 06/02/2022

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    13 Nights in May - The Sunflower Galaxy, 



    
        

            Robert Shepherd
    Powered byPixInsight

    13 Nights in May - The Sunflower Galaxy

    Image of the day 06/02/2022

    Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
      13 Nights in May - The Sunflower Galaxy, 



    
        

            Robert Shepherd
      Powered byPixInsight

      13 Nights in May - The Sunflower Galaxy

      Acquisition details

      Dates:
      May 5, 2022 ·  May 6, 2022 ·  May 7, 2022 ·  May 11, 2022 ·  May 23, 2022
      Frames:
      Baader H-alpha Ultra-Narrowband 3.5nm (CMOS-Optimized) 36 mm: 41×900(10h 15′) (gain: 100.00) -5°C bin 1×1
      ZWO Blue: 30×300(2h 30′) (gain: 0.00) -5°C bin 1×1
      ZWO Green: 36×300(3h) (gain: 0.00) -5°C bin 1×1
      ZWO Luminance: 462×180(23h 6′) (gain: 0.00) -5°C bin 1×1
      ZWO Red: 36×297(2h 58′ 12″) (gain: 0.00) -5°C bin 1×1
      Integration:
      41h 49′ 12″
      Darks:
      90
      Flats:
      46
      Flat darks:
      89
      Avg. Moon age:
      9.60 days
      Avg. Moon phase:
      39.56%
      Bortle Dark-Sky Scale:
      2.00

      RA center: 13h15m47s.830

      DEC center: +42°0208.86

      Pixel scale: 0.676 arcsec/pixel

      Orientation: 82.688 degrees

      Field radius: 0.585 degrees

      WCS transformation: thin plate spline

      More info:Open 

      Resolution: 4798x3966

      File size: 10.2 MB

      Data source: Amateur hosting facility

      Remote source: PixelSkies

      Description

      I spent 13 nights in May 2022 gathering LRGB and Ha of beautiful M63 - the Sunflower Galaxy. Because May is rather late for this target, I couldn’t spend the whole night just on M63 and so it took 13 nights to gather 42 hours of subs that made up this image. I discarded about another 10% due to seeing or other effects. At some point in the past I thought this galaxy wasn't that an interesting target. After seeing images here on Astrobin with lots of integration time though, I realized it's really worth dedicating quite some time. Even at f4.4 and bortle 2 skies it took several hours of luminance to start seeing the star streams around the galaxy. Enjoy and clear skies.

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      13 Nights in May - The Sunflower Galaxy, 



    
        

            Robert Shepherd

      In these public groups

      PixelSkies
      Reflecting Telescope Group