Black Eye Galaxy (Or M-64)

Strange to have a bunch of clear nights here in Seattle, all in a row! Sleep has been lacking on work nights, but thats one of the nice things about riding the bus to work, I don't have to wake up until sometime after I'm sitting at my desk!
I'm learning a few new tricks including "dithering" where I move the scope a little bit between every few frames. That really does smooth out the background noise nicely. I still have a lot to learn on processing, I'm getting nice data now, but just need to learn more about how to use my tools better.
The moon is growing brighter in the clear skies these nights, and it's to the point of being annoying for deep sky work, so I'm done gathering data until that thing is gone again.
Anyway, here is the latest. The Black Eye galaxy- M64. This is with 11 exposures at 5 minute each, with a bit of a nudged now and then to dither out the noise. Looking better but still not an expert at processing. I did take a bunch of frames of M106 the other night but then looking closer realized that my stars were out of focus. Files deleted....try again next time.

| More info on M-64 |