Rough and ready M101 (but still better than I expected :-) )

[FaB-Bo-Peep]

The attached image is the result of around 25 minutes worth of (RAW), subs captured from my severely light polluted back garden, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, (with darks but no flats), processed in StarTools and curves tweaked in Paintshop Pro.   

I could tell right from the start that this was going to be a real challenge! As the subs rolled in I could clearly see that the contrast between the galaxy and the light polluted sky was poor to say the least.

I will undoubtedly re-visit this target again in the near future but while the result this time around is certainly not mind-blowing it's definitely better than I anticipated from the poor contrast subs and at least I have an image that i feel is worth showing so I am again pleased.

Scope is the Skywatcher 250PDS and the camera is a Canon Rebel XS, (1000D).

[symmetal]

That's pretty good for the short integration time and sky quality. There is a fair amount of detail shown in the spiral arms. 

Alan

[des anderson]

A great image, well done. Des