• Messier 101 in Ursa Major before SN 2023ixf
  • M101
    Annotated
  • NGC 5457 or Messier 101 in Ursa Major.
  • The Pinwheel Galaxy is 23 mly away.
  • 21 May 2023 image with SN 2023ixf
  • Hover over the image for an annotated view.
  • Date:  7 May 2022
  • FOV:  cropped to 60' × 40'; the angular size of M101 is about 29 × 27'
  • Telescope:  Stellarvue SVX102T + SFFX-1 (714mm, f/7)
  • Guiding:  ZWO ASI120MM mini mono guide camera,
  • Stellarvue F050G 50mm guide scope
  • Computer:  ASIair pro Raspberry Pi
  • Mount:  iOptron CEM40
  • Camera:  ZWO ASI071MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS with gain 240
  • Filter:  Baader Light Pollution Moonglow filter with IR cut
  • Stacking:  Forty-two 240 second frames using DeepSkyStacker
  • Calibration frames:  20 dark and 20 flat
  • Total Time:  2 hours 48 minutes
  • Processing:  Pixinsight – SPCC, DBE, SPCC, BlurXTerminator,
  • NoiseXTerminator, GHS, HDRMST, Sat, DynamicCrop
  • Location:  Darling Hill Observatory near Vesper, NY