More light

So here we have M64 again, with another couple of hours worth of light added. Ultimately, I'm not drawing out more detail, since the resolution of my scope is fixed. But with less noise, the existing details stand out more and more. Compare this shot to that from a couple of posts back and the difference is dramatic. In the first shot, it took some fair amount of work in PhotoShop just to make the background black; here nothing was done at all beyond the normal stretching. I'm not bothering with that yet, since I have more subs to add to this stack already.

In the first post of M64, the background was just barely darker than the spiral arms, but in darkening the background much of the overall size of the galaxy is lost. Here, the actual size is showing, and the line marking where the edge of the object is lost in noise has moved out quite a bit. With a few clear nights and a few more hours of exposure...

I just found this website  from the Calvin Observatory about M64. A lot of good information. And an interesting photo...shot with a 16" Ritchey–Chrétien telescope at high altitude in New Mexico. Sure, it's a better picture than mine...but not by a whole lot, to be frank. No word on results from the Hobbes Observatory as yet.