"This image shows countless resolved stars, emission nebula and a mysterious central bulge. The photo is incredibly detailed, the mist surrounding the galaxy is actually tens of thousands of yellowish tiny stars.

PixInsight and AstroPixelProcessor were used for pre-processing and the mosaic. Defects were corrected using a technique called Multi-Scale Gradient Removal, using wide-field data. During the process, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator and NoiseXTerminator were used and the final adjustment was done in Photoshop."

Taken with a William Optics 12" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Truss Tube, GSO 14" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Truss Tube and Takahashi Epsilon 160 telescopes, iOptron CEM120EC and Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro mounts, ZWO ASI6200MM Pro camera, 2,272 mm f/6.4, Gain 100, 216 hours total exposure time.

Location: Daocheng County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China, 30–31 October, 1–6, 20–30 November, 1–10 and 20–31 December 2024