Pinwheel Galaxy - M101

This 1.6 hour exposure of this beautiful face on spiral galaxy is the Pinwheel Galaxy. It is located 20.87 million light years away, and is a massive 170 000 light years in diameter, containing 1 trillion stars. This galaxy is very blue in colour due to the rapid star formation in its arms. In the photo, you can also see multiple other galaxies. Some of theses are dwarf galaxies of M101, and others are almost 100 million light years away. These other galaxies cause the pinwheel galaxy to look asymmetrical. Check out the labeled version in the photo details.
Picture
Final Photo
Picture
A Cropped Version of the Galaxy Labelled
Details of How the shot was Taken
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Gear:
  • Olympus OMD EM-5 Micro 4/3 camera 
  • Skywatcher Star Adventurer (Unguided)
  • Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 lens
  • Home made dew heater
    • Made with nichrome wire wrapped in duct tape, which is powdered by a lipo battery 
​Acquisition & Environment:
  • 100x1 minute exposures (1.6 hours)
  • 1600 iso @ 150mm (300 equivalent) F2.8
  • 30 Flat Frames
  • 30 Dark Frames
  • 80 Bias Frames
  • Taken: August 4, 2018
Processing:
  • Images processed in DeepSkyStacker
    • 2x Drizzle Stack
    • Brought Saturation to 17 and match all rgb levels
  • Photoshop Adjustments:
    • Cropped to remove stacking errors 
    • Adjust Levels to bring Histogram to the front
    • Used RC-Astro's Gradient xterminator to remove the gradient the flats couldn't fix
    • Used Deep Sky Colours HLVG tool to remove any unnecessary greens in the photo
    • Used Astronomy tools to bring out local contrast and make stars smaller
    • Increased the Saturation 
    • Exported into jpeg
Picture
The Raw Image From the Camera