M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (LHaRGB) (jmarinotero)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: M 101 · NGC 5422 · NGC 5447 · NGC 5449 · NGC 5450 · NGC 5451 · NGC 5453 · NGC 5455 · NGC 5457 · NGC 5461 · NGC 5462 · NGC 5471 · NGC 5473 · NGC 5474 · NGC 5477 · NGC 5484 · NGC 5485 · NGC 5486 · PGC 214207 · PGC 2439146 · PGC 2448110 · PGC 2449271 · PGC 2449818 · PGC 2452513 · PGC 2452936 · PGC 2453053 · PGC 2454191 · PGC 2455022 · PGC 2456753 · PGC 2456975 · And 57 more.

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (LHaRGB)

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (LHaRGB)

M101 is a prominent spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major and one of the most captured objects of this type in the northern sky. This galaxy is very large, almost twice the diameter of our own Milky Way. Its spiral arms are very dynamic, with huge HII regions with active star formation within huge molecular gas clouds. These show up in pinkish color in the image, thanks to the contribution of the Ha filter. M101 has at least five satellite galaxies, and it is thought that some have contributed to its relative asymmetric appearance with close interactions in the past.

Imaging M101 is something that most amateur astrophotographers will capture at some point. I've imaged this object three times already, and every time it reminds me that it is one of those objects that gets instant satisfaction, you get visible data from the first frame. Another matter is extracting everything that is possible, there is just so much you can do with the data that keeps coming in as you add integration time, and it is a great target to experiment with new techniques. For this image, I did make heavy use of the GHS script for stretching (outstanding tool, I think I am getting the hang of it) and I also added the Ha data to the RGB image by subtracting the continuous spectrum (Red) from Ha in order to produce a better representation of this emission line; and then using PixelMath to incorporate it with custom boost factors for the Red and Blue channels. I approached this project with two concurrent imaging rigs to maximize data collection, with the SVX140T collecting Luminance and the Esprit100 collecting RGB data.

NOVAC
Trevinca Skies

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5779733
PixInsight job	H0WG6XE0CMWQ3EUYERHTDU3N3HCB75X9
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	14h03m08s.96
RA (top/left)	13h58m05s.99
RA (top/right)	13h58m34s.32
RA (bottom/right)	14h07m56s.79
RA (bottom/left)	14h07m58s.33

Dec (center)	+54°20′56″.2
Dec (top/left)	+55°23′13″.1
Dec (top/right)	+53°16′40″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+53°17′56″.0
Dec (bottom/left)	+55°24′31″.1

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (LHaRGB)

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (LHaRGB)

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (LHaRGB)

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (LHaRGB)

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