M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (Finished)

My image of M101 from a couple of weeks ago was not particularly good as it was more of a test using APT with plate solving. I added data from last year and I went out a second night to capture more data.  This time I used my Atlas Pro Mount with APT and Plate Solving. I was very happy as everything worked like perfectly.  This latest colorful image is much better than any other image of M101 I ever did previously and shows the benefit of longer exposure.  I did have one issue with PHD2 with the Atlas Mount in that I had to use the ST-4 cable (phone cable) as I needed to update the Version-4 SynScan Hand Controller like I did with the Sirius Mount.  I updated it the following evening as I did not want to use too much of the clear night doing updates.  Fortunately, the ST-4 cable worked fine.

M101 is a large face-on spiral galaxy located 21 million light-years from us.  It is has a diameter of 170,000 light-years and has around a trillion stars.  It 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 (source: Wikipedia).

I did not crop this much as I like the wide field with all the other galaxies located in the field.  I did not crop this much as I like the wide field with all the other galaxies located in the field. I especially NGC 5422 in the lower central area.

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 04-15-17, 05-30-18, 6-11-18
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), AstroPhotography Tool APT)
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ (HEQ5)
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser

Exposure: 59 x 90s, 40 x 90s, 72 x 90s

ISO: 1600
Temp: 18 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, Star Tools, Lightroom
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/