M101 and the Leo Triplet

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M101 (the Pinwheel galaxy):  On the night of the 21st April I took 3 hours of 5 minute subs on this magnificent galaxy which lies in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Plough) being some 21 million light years away and is bigger than our own galaxy by 65%; having a trillion stars in it, with a diameter some 252,000 miles. Many active HII regions can be seen in Ha and red wavelengths, where stars are being born. The LRGB/Ha composition was made with two telescopes with an ASI 533MM Pro camera, with 6 hours using a Sky Watcher Esprit 80 ED triplet refractor fitted with a field flattener and 2 hours with an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor fitted with a 0.8 x focal reducer (total integration time 8 hours).  LRGB data comprised separate 60.00s, 120.00s, 240.00s and 300.00s exposures, with Ha 120.00s, 240.00s and 300.00s. RGB total exposures were 1.5 hours each, luminance 1.75 hours and Ha 1.25 hours. Data were integrated in Pixinsight and completed in Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop, with x2 upscaling done using Firefly.

The Leo triplet of galaxies: On the night of the 21st April I took 3 hours of 5 minute LRGB/Ha subs of this galaxy trio which I integrated with previous four and two minute exposure subs data to give a total exposure time of 6 hours, with 1.5 hours luminance, red and green, 1 hour blue, and 0.5 hours of hydrogen alpha data.Data were acquired in NINA using an ASI 533MM Pro camera attached to a Sky Watcher Esprit 80 ED triplet refractor fitted with a field flattener. Integration and processing were carried out in Pixinsight, with final adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom. The Leo triplet comprise M65, M66 and NGC 3628 (also known as the "Hamburger galaxy" and lie at an average distance of 34 million light years.

Chris Bowden