Reflections from Heaven

Location & Date	Backyard, Abbott Observatory- Long Island, NY, April 2022
Telescope	Orion ED80 F/7 APO, Moonlite focuser, iOptron GEM45G, Pegasus Falcon rotator Image scale 2.54 arcsec/pixel
Camera	SBIG ST-2000XM Baader L R G B filters CCD temp -15°C
Exposures	Lum- 18X5m Red- 12x5m Green- 12x5m Blue-12x5m Bin 1x1
Planning & Acquisition	Image acquisition - Sequence Generator Pro w/PinPoint & PHD2 (guiding)
Processing	CCDStack - Calibration, Normalize, Alignment, Deconvolution Adobe PS - LRGB combine, Color adjustments, Noise reduction, Sharpen, JPEG conversion RC-Astro Star XTerminator Topaz Gigapixel AI - galaxy details

From Wikipedia;

NGC 4565 (also known as the Needle Galaxy or Caldwell 38) is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It lies close to the North Galactic Pole and has a visual magnitude of approximately 10. It is known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile. First recorded in 1785 by William Herschel, it is a prominent example of an edge-on spiral galaxy.

NGC 4565 is a giant spiral galaxy more luminous than the Andromeda Galaxy. Much speculation exists in literature as to the nature of the central bulge. In the absence of clear-cut dynamical data on the motions of stars in the bulge, the photometric data alone cannot adjudge among various options put forth. However, its exponential shape suggested that it is a barred spiral galaxy. Studies with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope not only confirmed the presence of a central bar but also showed a pseudobulge within it as well as an inner ring.

NGC 4565 has at least two satellite galaxies, one of which is interacting with it. It has a population of roughly 240 globular clusters, more than the Milky Way. NGC 4565 is one of the brightest member galaxies of the Coma I Group.

This edge-on galaxy exhibits a slightly warped and extended disk under deep optical surveys- likely due to ongoing interactions with neighboring satellite galaxies or other galaxies in the Coma I group.

A side by side comparison comparing the native galaxy resized to 2x and the detailed Topaz Gigapixel AI version.

Sometimes there are artifacts in the surrounding stars so only the galaxy structure was used.
My usual technique is to remove the stars and work on the galaxy structure and smooth the background in Luminance only and add the stars back later.
The RGB color is processed separately and with a 0.8px gaussian blur applied, added to the Lum channel using color blending in PS.

The Gigapixel 2x version was resized down to its native size using Photoshop Preserve Details 2.0.