M65/M66
Enhanced Hydrogen Comparison

 North up in these images

            

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This 12 hour - or Half a
            Day total exposure of this stunning pair of very different galaxies
            in Leo invites comparison down to the smallest hydrogen details.
            The image on the left is a standard 8 hour LRGB image using standard
            processing methods. On the right, an additional 4h of hydrogen
            data was added to each color channel in the correct proportions
            to yield a true color hydrogen enhanced image.

            
Certainly the largest
            difference is in the very active star forming galaxy M66 on the
            left. This 9.7th magnitude SAB spiral spans 9 arc minutes in
            length. So rich are the arms with hydrogen in red light that
            the nebulosity obscures much of the blue arms in the second image.
            On the right, the nearly edge on M65 is far more yellow in color
            and has much smaller less active star forming regions. The additional
            hydrogen appears as small patches and tiny spots in its dusty
            arms. M65 is fainter at 10.3rd magnitude.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Mount:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Water Cooling
Guider: Meade DSI Pro  w/Lumicon Newt Easy Guider
Exposure:  LRGB = 480:40:40:40 
Exposure:  Ha+LRGB = 240:480:40:40:40 
AstroDon RGB Combine Ratio:  1: 1.05: 1.6
Location:  Payson, Arizona, Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FWHM = 4.5 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 6/10
Outside Temperature:  45 F
CCD Temperature:  -30 C
Image Processing Tools: 
Maxim DL:  Calibration, deblooming (Starizona Debloomer), aligning, stacking
PixInsight:  Curves, Deconvolution
Photoshop CS2:  Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup

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