M63 – The Sunflower Galaxyy

M63 is a spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, estimated variously to be between 24 and 36 million light years distant. North is toward to the right in this image.

This is an attempt to "go deep" with a total luminance exposure of nearly seven hours. Color was added later, with 4½ hours total exposure. At first, while processing the image, I was disappointed by the graininess around the galaxy, but later decided this is really the outlying stars, and is "real."

Here is a full-size image from which this was cropped. Careful examination shows dozens of background galaxies.