M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
M101 is a large spiral galaxy located 21 million light-years from Earth. It has twice as many stars as our Milky Way and stretches 170,000 light-years across. It contains over 1000 star-forming H-II regions which become more visible when using an Ha filter. Four supernovae have been observed in the galaxy, the last one in 2011. The bright blue-green object at the left edge of M101 is ionized region NGC5471, and the fuzzy object further to the left is dwarf galaxy NGC5477. North is at the top. Imaged using the SDAA TARO.

Scope/Mount: DSI RC14C 14.5 inch F7 Ritchey Chretien, Software Bisque Paramount ME Mount
Camera: Apogee Alta U16m CCD monochrome with Astrodon II filters
Guiding: Starlight Express Loadstar through OAG
Exposure: L (20) 900 sec, Ha (12) 1200 sec, RGB: each channel (20) 900 sec
Software: Astronomers Control Panel, The Sky X Professional, Maxim DL, FocusMax, PixInsight
Comment: SDAA TARO at Tierra del Sol, CA, good conditions. Palette = LRGB + Ha used as mask.