Object:The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781 and was communicated to Charles Messier, who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries.
Taken: August 19, 2020
Telescope: Astro-Tech 14” RC with Starizona Apex-ED L 0.65x focal reducer
Mount: Paramount ME II unguided
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC-Pro (cooled to -10C; Gain 200) Bin 1×1.
Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Rotator: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Filters used: Astronomik UV-IR Cut Filter
Exposures: 65×120 seconds for a total exposure time of 2.17 hours; calibrated with 40 dark frames, 40 flat frames with 40 dark-flats.
Seeing Conditions:
Image capture and telescope control: Sequence Generator Pro and TheSkyX Pro
Processed with PixInsight, Photoshop CC 2020, Topaz DeNoise AI