M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy

"M101 is a large galaxy, with a diameter of 170,000 light-years. By comparison, the Milky Way has a diameter of 258,000 light years. It has around a trillion stars, twice the number in the Milky Way. It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small central bulge of about 3 billion solar masses.

 

M101 is asymmetrical due to the tidal forces from interactions with its companion galaxies. These gravitational interactions compress interstellar hydrogen gas, which then triggers strong star formation activity in M101's spiral arms that can be detected in ultraviolet images. "

- Wikipedia

 

Shooting Location :

* 51° N 3° E

* bortle class 5 backyard

 

Object Information

* Type : Spiral Galaxy

* Magnitude : 7,86

* Location (J2000.0): RA 14h 03m 13s / DEC +58° 20' 56"

* Approximate distance : 6.400 parsecs / 20.877.000 lightyears

 

Hardware

* Mount : Celestron CGX

* Imaging Scope : Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS

* Imaging Camera : ZWO ASI 183MM

* Filter Wheel : ZWO EFW 7*36mm + Baader Ha 7nm, Baader OIII 8.5nm + Baader SII 8.5nm + Baader LRGB

* Coma Corrector : Baader MPCC III

* Guide Scope : Sky-Watcher StarTravel 80

* Guide Camera : ZWO ASI 120MM

 

Exposures

* Gain : 111

* Offset : 10

* Sensor Temperature : -20°C

* Light Frames :

> Baader Luminance : 49x 180sec

> Baader Red : 11x 180sec

> Baader Green : 11x 180sec

> Baader Blue : 11x 180sec

* Flat Frames :

> Baader L : 30x

> Baader R : 30x

> Baader G : 30x

> Baader B : 30x

* Dark Frames : 100x

* Bias Frames : 100x

* Total Integration Time : 4h06m

* Capture Date : 2019-04-10

 

Capture Software

* Sequence Generator Pro

* PHD2 Guiding

 

Processing Software

* PixInsight

* Noiseless

* Adobe Photoshop

Done