Black Eye Galaxy

The Black Eye Galaxy, M64, as imaged from El Sauce Observatory, Chile. This spiral galaxy is located in Coma Berenices at a distance of 17 million light years.

I stacked the FITS images in Astro Pixel Processor, then used Pix Insight to create an RGB image, from which the stars were extracted. The images were stretched and adjusted for saturation. The Luminance image was also made starless, then enhanced for detail and noise reduction. The Luminance was combined with the RGB image, then the stars were returned. Final processing include Topaz Denoise and adjustments in the macOS photo editor.

I left the edges un-cropped, I like the “as shot” look it gives the image.