Spring is Galaxy Season

Bad weather is finally over, and the skies have cleared here in the Midwest.

This large galaxy, M101, has a huge brightness range, which makes it a challenge to process. I once saw a Palomar glass plate of this object which showed the huge range quite well, because negative film has a non-linear response at the very bright end.

I posted this shot that I did last night as a negative. It shows the very faint extensions better than a normal image. It also brings back memories of the old film days before CCDs. Note the numerous tiny background galaxies.

https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...8.jpg&caption=

AP 17" F8 Astrograph
STL11K camera
40 x 5 minute Luminance
AP1600 mount

Razzy