Astrophotography by Eddie Guscott
One of the largest (visually) galaxies in the entire sky, this Grand Design spiral was once though to be symetrical, as only the central condensation was observed. This long exposure image, however, shows nearly the full extent of the galaxies outer arms. Situated in Ursa Major, this 170,000 light year diameter galaxy is about 25 million light years away.
Click here or on image for a larger (400Kb) image
| Date/Location: | 28 January, 2006 Ashill, Norfolk |
| Equipment: | 5" F6 TMB Refractor on AP900 mount |
| Camera/Exposure: | ST2000XM ccd camera LHaRGB 110/30/30/30 (10min subs, all binned 1x1) |
| Notes: | I finally got an M101 image that I liked. A very dark and transparent night albeit with terrible seeing. |
Click here or on image for a larger (250Kb) image
| Date/Location: | 20-23 June, 2004 & 19 April, 2005 Corringham, Esex |
| Equipment: | 5" F6 TMB Refractor on AP900 mount |
| Camera/Exposure: | ST2000XM ccd camera / L=220m, Ha=100m, R=60m, G=60m, B=60m |
| Processing: | AIP4WIN, Maxim DL and PS7 |
| Notes: | Additional data recorded in April 2005 was added to that from the image below (from 2004). Sky conditions were below average with high cloud resulting in a rather noisy image. In addition, image rotation has forced me to present the image with a circular mask around it, as the sky gradients between the data sets distracted too much from the image. |
