Here is M101 taken last Friday.
Sony A7S on Celestron C11 with Starizona large format corrector (F7.2)
420x30sec at ISO 10000 i.e. 3.5 hours of total exposure time.
Again I used Bayer Drizzle stacking in PixInsight to preserve maximum sharpness followed up by slight deconvolution on the brighter areas of the image.
(http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2018/M101_C11_20180420.jpg)
This is a quick processing job because unfortunately the stars are egg shaped - especially on the left hand side. My suspicion is that the collimation was slightly out. So I'm not as pleased with this image as the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy. M101 is a tougher target in any case - especially those very faint outer arms.
Here's the larger version (crop at 100% scale):
http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2018/M101_C11_20180420.jpg
Mark
Lusciously lovely Mark, Most people would be quite happy with those stars in any case Mark, but you are a perfectionist.
I find this target very difficult and have yet to get a capture of it I am happy with. Do you think the central detail might sharpen up a bit or have you already done that?
Carole
Pretty fantastic Mark
Well done.
Noel
Have to say you are highly critical Mark - this is a really difficult object due to its low overall surface brightness - Have to say this is one of the best presentations of this I have seen.. John
Again a very nice image,
Im sure between all of our imagers, there must be
a messier book to be published somwhere.
Mac