Pinwheel Galaxy June 2023 with SN2023IXF (Fabian Butkovich)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: HD122865 · M 101 · NGC 5447 · NGC 5449 · NGC 5450 · NGC 5451 · NGC 5453 · NGC 5455 · NGC 5457 · NGC 5461 · NGC 5462 · NGC 5471 · NGC 5477 · Pinwheel galaxy

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Pinwheel Galaxy June 2023 with SN2023IXF

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Pinwheel Galaxy June 2023 with SN2023IXF

This year's version of M101 has presented quite a challenge, but I'm excited that I have finally "completed" this project. Throughout May and the beginning of June, I conducted numerous imaging sessions on this deep sky target, resulting in an impressive collection of 459 5-minute subframes, by far the largest amount of data I have ever captured for a single celestial object. Unfortunately, the recent Canadian wildfires posed a challenge here in the Midwest for any astro imaging, hindering truly clear nights with optimal seeing conditions. Consequently, several of my imaging sessions were conducted under poor transparency skies.

Photographing the Pinwheel Galaxy is always an ambitious endeavor under light-polluted skies, and using a One Shot Colour (OSC) astrophotography camera instead of a narrowband imaging makes things even more difficult. Leading up to this photograph, I went through several post-processing revisions, none of which left me satisfied. The main issue was an uneven gradient over the center of the galaxy that persisted despite my attempts to eliminate it using software-based flat correction techniques. However, my dedication to achieving the perfect astrophotograph compelled me to persist, and it was only when I rectified a critical mistake in my stacking sequence that I finally obtained a usable image.

The mistake I made was that I had neglected to capture and stack any calibration flat frames throughout the entire acquisition process, mistakenly believing that the software's field flattening technique would be sufficient. However, once I stacked 40 flat frames along with the 405 light frames, the end result in Photoshop was significantly improved!

Thank you for reading my journey creating this work of art.

Clear Skies everyone

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7836961
PixInsight job	4ZN6CCX6513AFU4HC1D888L6KL8WLHTQ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	14h03m10s.646
RA (top/left)	14h06m03s.738
RA (top/right)	14h05m24s.328
RA (bottom/right)	14h00m15s.928
RA (bottom/left)	14h00m59s.349

Dec (center)	+54°22′15″.82
Dec (top/left)	+54°08′01″.96
Dec (top/right)	+54°43′48″.70
Dec (bottom/right)	+54°36′12″.32
Dec (bottom/left)	+54°00′33″.43

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Pinwheel Galaxy June 2023 with SN2023IXF

Pinwheel Galaxy June 2023 with SN2023IXF

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Pinwheel Galaxy June 2023 with SN2023IXF

Pinwheel Galaxy June 2023 with SN2023IXF

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