Second attempt at Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

[meryck]

Beautiful clear night in Denmark on Sunday night, so got out there in the cold for a few hours:

(Skywatcher 200p, EQ5 goto mount unguided, Canon 450D, [42 x 120s subs @ iso 800, 16 x darks, 16 x flats, 16 x flat darks], DeepSkyStacker + Gimp for levels adjustment)

Polar alignment was a bit off, so some trailing. But I feel it's much better than my first attempt below (didn't do flats, so horrible vignetting, and focus was off, though alignment was better):

[DougM43]

Like it, as you say much better than the firs one. I struggle to keep round stars at 120s unguided with my heq5 pro and find I have to discard quite a few subs once past about 90s.

[Sunshine]

i love it! 

[meryck]

1 hour ago, DougM43 said:

Like it, as you say much better than the firs one. I struggle to keep round stars at 120s unguided with my heq5 pro and find I have to discard quite a few subs once past about 90s.

Yes, I know what you mean. I don't autoguide, or do any kind of precise polar alignment technique, so it's around a 50/50 chance of round stars for me at 120s. Most of the time it's just about good enough to do something nice with though.

[Victor Boesen]

Much better than the first attempt! It was nice to have some clear weather again here in Denmark:-)

[meryck]

15 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

Much better than the first attempt! It was nice to have some clear weather again here in Denmark:-)

Haha, yes, it's been a long grey wait for clear skies...