Yes, this is an actual Messier object. These two stars are by far the most awe-inspiring, and sexy objects in space.

Captured on April 25th, 2021 from a Bortle 6 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Instagram | Flickr

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 2 hours 44 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)

• Lum - 128x120"

• Red - 18x120"

• Green - 18x120"

• Blue - 18x120"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Processing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration

• DynamicCrop

• AutomaticBackgroundExtraction

Luminance:

• EZ Denoise

• ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear

RGB:

• ChannelCombinaiton to combine monochrome R, G, B stacks into color image

• PhotometricColorCalibration

• Slight SCNR

• HSV Repair

• ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear

Nonlinear:

• LRGBCombination with stretched L as luminance

• Several CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, colors, saturation, etc.

• ACDNR

• EZ StarReduction

• NoiseGenerator to add noise back into star reduced areas

• Final Curves

• Annotation

M40 was a mistake actually. Messier was looking for a previously reported nebula in the area and only saw this optical double. He marked it as M40 anyways.