Click for full sized image of M101
Things aways seem to go against me if I try M101. This time it was variable frosting on the CCD giving little hope for the flats, coupled with rather bright skies. Still, certainly be best effort on this target. Poor guiding also resulted in some discarded frames, so less than 2 hours exposure here, hence rather noisy.
M101 does have a very odd appearance. The lopsided nature of the galaxy disrupts the eye and makes you think the imager has made a mistake somewhere.
Captured in ArtemisCapture, calibrated in ImagetoolsCa, DDP and deconvolution in maxim, thuggery in photoshop. I've clipped the black a bit to try and hide the noise and uneven background.
This image was autoguided using my 400mm focal length refractor and my black and white SC1 webcam.
Current Imaging equipment configuration
Exposure Details :
Coma Corrector 20x300s on 200mm @ F5 with ART285
Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK
