Imaged the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) and supernova SN2023ixf on the nights of May 25-26, 2023.  M101 has an apparent magnitude (v) of 7.9 and an apparent size of 28.8 × 26.9 arcsec. What luck to have an observable supernova in a galaxy readily imaged with typical backyard telescopes during 'galaxy season'!  As with many other folks on Astrobin, I took the opportunity to image it last week.

Regarding SN2023ixf, per Sky and Telescope (https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/bright-supernova-blazes-in-m101-the-pinwheel-galaxy/):  "Superstar supernova hunter Koichi Itagaki discovered the new object, designated SN 2023 ixf, on May 19.7 UT, immediately southwest of the prominent HII region NGC5461.  ...Spectra indicate that SN 2023ixf is a Type II supernova — the catastrophic destruction of an aging supergiant star."

Regarding M101, per Wikipedia (reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_Galaxy):  "The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years (6.4 megaparsecs) away from Earth in the constellationUrsa Major.  ...M101 has a high population of H II regions, many of which are very large and bright. H II regions usually accompany the enormous clouds of high density molecular hydrogen gas contracting under their own gravitational force where stars form.  ...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." 

Imaged with a William Optics GT81 at F4.7 (382 mm focal length) using Flat6A II field flattener/0.8x reducer, IDAS NGS1 filter, and ZWO ASI 533MC Pro.  Total integration time of ~3 hours: 86 subs at Gain = 100 with an exposure time of 120 sec.

Pre-processed using Pixinsight's weighted batch pre-processing script (WBPP) to perform calibration, debayering, registration, local normalization, and integration.  Background removed using GradXpert.  Post-processing in Pixinsight:  spectrophotometric color calibration, blur x terminator, noise x terminator, masked stretch, generalized hyperbolic stretch using rangemask, HDR transformation using EasyHDR script, local histogram transformation, and color saturation adjustment.

Original version:  M101 OSC RGB image, annotated to highlight SN2023ixf

Rev B:  M101 OSC RGB image, original

Rev C:  M101 OSC RGB image, inverted