M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB

This is M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB. The well-known M101 is a huge galaxy in Ursa Major, almost twice the size of the Milky Way 170 000 ly in diameter and containing 1 trillion stars.

This is an image I shot during my voyage, under Bortle 3 darks skies in Southern France. I could benefit of an excellent seeing during 2 nights allowing to capture some nice details and small galaxies in the background. I started the project at home in January, but due to the heavy light pollution and reflections at home, I decided to keep only the best frames I got during my trip.

Telescope: Teleskop Service ONTC Newtonian 250mm @ 3.8
Mount: Skywatcher AZEQ6 Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MM filtres Astrodon Ha 3nm; Baader RVB
Software: Sequence Generator Pro, Pixinsight, Photoshop
Dates : 16 January 25 April 26 April 29 April 2022
L 81 x 180s
R 31 x 180s
G 32 x 180s
B 31 x 180s
Ha 42 x 300s
RGB – Bortle 3; Ha – Bortle 8
Total exposure: 12h15
Location: Lot department, France

Autore: Bogdan Borz (sito)