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Observation by Mike Greenhill-Hooper: Sunflower Galaxy

Uploaded by

Mike Greenhill-Hooper

Observer

Mike Greenhill-Hooper

Observed

2018 Apr 20 - 00:00

Uploaded

2021 May 17 - 14:23

Objects

The Sunflower Galaxy (M63)

Planetarium overlay









Constellation

Canes Venatici

Field centre

RA: 13h15m
Dec: +42°02'
Position angle: -179°12'

Field size

0°40' × 0°30'

Equipment
  • Celestron C11 on SkyWatcher NEQ6 mount; f6.3 focal reducer
  • Atik 383L Orion StarShoot autoguider (OAG); UV/IR cut-off filter
Exposure

mix of 300s binned and unbinned

Location

Miradoux, S.W. France

Target name

M63

Title

Sunflower Galaxy

About this image

Originally photograped in 2018, reprocessed images with new treatments (flats and bias corrected as well as darks), in Dawn (Atik's proprietary aligning and stacking software), plus final stacked images developed using Affinity Photo. Main drawback was lack of patience in gathering enough images - only about 1 hour's worth - not enough to reveal diffuse outer regions of galaxy.  Would be grateful for recommendations for new camera (CCD or CMOS) that has an improved sensitivity and light gathering power over my existing OSC camera (Atik 383L) that is now 6 years old. Thank you for any suggestions.  Thinking of moving to mono, but then see many excellent images in the gallery taken with colour cameras.

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