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Object Type: Spiral Galaxy (Sc)
Constellation: Ursa Major
Magnitude: 7.9
Size: 22'

M101 is located about 27 million light-years from our solar system. Although its integrated magnitude of 7.9 suggests that it is one of the brighter galaxies in the sky, it has a low surface brightness due to its large apparent size.

Equipment: Meade 14" LX200R/STL-11000M/Astrodon LRGB filters/Paramount ME
F-ratio: f/9.5
Exposures: LRGB:  L 12 x 15 minutes, binned 2x2: R 9 x 15 minutes: G 10 x 15 minutes: B 10 x 15 minutes: RGB binned 3x3
Date: May 2-4, 2008
Location: Landers, California, USA
Technical Notes: Individual expsoures were dithered using CCDAutoPilot2 and then sigma combined. The RGB image was created in Registar 1.0. High-pass filters of 2 and 4 pixels were selectively applied to the luminance image using Layer Masks. The RGB image was duplicated and the resulting layer combined using Soft Light to enhance color. Gaussian Blur of 0.5 pixel was applied to the RGB image.