Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 63  ·  NGC 5055  ·  Sunflower Galaxy
M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB, AnaTa
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M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB

Revision title: Main image

M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB, AnaTa
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M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB

Revision title: Main image

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Description

M63, the Sunflower Galaxy[i] [/i]is a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici with approximately 400 billion stars. Size of the galaxy is 12.6' x 7.3' and brightness is about 10 Mag. M63 is a weakly active galaxy and the existence of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of M63 is uncertain.M63[color=var(--lighterGrey)] is part of the M51 Group [/color][color=var(--lighterGrey)](the 'Whirlpool Galaxy'). [/color]In 1971, a supernova with a magnitude of 11.8 appeared in one of the M63 arms. It was discovered on 24 May and reached peak light around 26 May. The spectrum of this, SN 1971I, is consistent with a supernova of type I. However, the spectroscopic behavior appeared anomalous.
This picture was captured in May 2024 from remote observatory in NM. SNR is of about 35. 
Two processing were used.

Processing:
Cropping for R, G, B and Lum
GraXpert for R, G, B and Lum
RGB are combined.
DBE for RGB
Color Colib for RGB using SPCC script
Blur and Noise XT for RGB and Lum

Processing 1:
Star XT for RGB and Lum.
Manual stretching (with HT) RGB, RGB-stars (weak stretch) and Lum
Lum was treated with HDR multiscale Transform
Blend image script was used to create LRGB 
Noise XT again
Stretching again
Simple Lum mask 
Local Histogram Equalization: Kernel radius of 40, 150 and then 300 (setting 0.2 for each).
Multiscale-median transform for sharpness (setting 0.03-0.04). 
Curves: saturation, hue and brightness are manipulated.
Mask off.
Annotation (panel A).
Slight cropping (panel B)

Processing 2:
Star XT for RGB and Lum.
Manual stretching (with HT) RGB-stars (weak stretch).
Starless RGB and Lum were stretched with GHS
The LRGB combination was used to combine images. 
Simple Lum mask 
Local Histogram Equalization: Kernel radius of 40, 150 and then 300 (setting 0.2 for each).
Multiscale-median transform for sharpness (setting 0.03-0.04). 
Curves: saturation, hue and brightness are manipulated.
Mask off.
Main image is on panel C.

Comments

Revisions

  • M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB, AnaTa
    Original
  • M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB, AnaTa
    C
  • Final
    M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB, AnaTa
    D

C

Title: Older version

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D

Title: Main image

Uploaded: ...

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Sky plot

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M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, LRGB, AnaTa

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Messier Catalog